What Really Happened With Brock Lesnar At SmackDown After Vince McMahon Retirement

WWE

Here’s everything that is known about Brock Lesnar’s walk-out and return to SmackDown on July 22, following Vince McMahon’s retirement announcement.

As covered on the day, Lesnar reportedly left the TD Garden in Boston ahead of the live SmackDown broadcast, but returned during the show, before appearing in the final segment of the episode.

Dave Meltzer had provided a summary of the events of that evening in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Lesnar reportedly walked out as soon as word circulated backstage on McMahon’s tweet, which was posted at 4:05pm ET. He returned to the arena at around 8:30pm, over four hours later.

The belief was reportedly that when Lesnar walked out, management kept in contact with him, before eventually making a deal for him to return.

Per the report, Lesnar seemed happy when he returned to the building. Alternate plans for the episode without Lesnar had been made.

A WWE source reportedly indicated that Lesnar leaving on the day McMahon announced his departure was one of the worst things that could’ve happened publicly, because of Lesnar’s star status.

Lesnar is slated to challenge for Roman Reigns’ Undisputed WWE Universal Title in a Last Man Standing match at SummerSlam on Saturday (July 30). Check out the announced card for the event at this link.

For everything we currently know about Vince McMahon retiring, click here. You can find further updates and follow-ups on Vince McMahon right here.

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• walk out
• Brock Lesnar
• Smackdown
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