While bringing back Brock Lesnar was not the original plan, a spate of injuries to key names like Randy Orton and Cody Rhodes played the WWE’s hands and they brought back the Beast.
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The Beast Incarnate Brock Lesnar made his shocking return to the WWE on last week’s SmackDown and sent the wrestling world into a frenzy. It was later announced that Roman Reigns would defend his WWE Undisputed Universal Championship in a last-man standing match against Lesnar at SummerSlam. While bringing back Brock was not the original plan, a spate of injuries to key names like Randy Orton and Cody Rhodes played the WWE’s hands and they brought back the Beast.
Booker T was on his Hall Of Fame podcast when he was asked if Brock’s return was a sign of desperation from the WWE. Booker replied, “I wouldn’t call it desperate. I would call it pulling the ace out. That’s what you do. You may not get a chance to do a whole lot in the ring, but you gotta make people look at you a certain way and go ‘Man, we need to do something with this guy’. I never once thought about somebody writing something for me. I said ‘I’m gonna go out there and whoop somebody’s ass,’ to the point to where somebody says, ‘Man, we gotta keep him over!’ That’s why I got 35 titles! Not putting myself over or anything like that, but then again, yes I am.”
Read more: Three wrestlers Brock Lesnar could have targeted after his shocking return
Brock Lesnar came back during the closing moments of SmackDown after Roman Reigns successfully defeated Riddle to retain the WWE Undisputed Universal Championship. As Reigns, The Usos and Paul Heyman were celebrating inside the ring, Brock’s music hit and sent the fans into a frenzy. He made his way down to the ring and surprisingly offered his hand to Reigns in what appeared to be a sign of respect. When Roman gave him his hand, Lesnar picked him up and delivered an emphatic F5.
Initially, this was not the plan and now there are reports confirming that. A report from Fightful Select shed some light on how another match between the two behemoths came to fruition. This time around, it wasn’t in the original plans heading into SummerSlam as it was supposed to be Randy Orton taking on Roman Reigns. But with Orton’s unexpected injury and the need for surgery, Brock Lesnar was called to take his place. People backstage were informed of Brock’s return to SmackDown around 5 p.m. ET, however, he was not featured on the internal rundowns handed out just before the show.
