(Has Lesnar decided to return to the quiet and dignified life of professional wrestling?)
Earlier this weekend there were rumors that former UFC heavyweight champion — and before that, former WWE champion — Brock Lesnar had signed a new deal with the WWE and would be making an appearance at their annual pay-per-view centerpiece WrestleMania yesterday. Lesnar never actually showed up on the broadcast, and the rumors of his re-signing with the WWE are still just that, but they come from about as reliable a rumor-mill as there is in the business, Dave Meltzer’s Wrestling Observer (via MMAMania):
“Brock Lesnar has arrived in Miami and arrived with security and a large group of people shielding him from everyone. This is the going story, but not confirmed, that Lesnar has signed a one year deal and will work a more than Undertaker and less than Goldberg type of schedule.”
What they mean is that Lesnar would not be driving all over the country in a rental car five days a week, working show after show like most people on the WWE roster. That’s good, since Lesnar first left the WWE because he didn’t want to have to maintain the brutal grind of a pro wrestler’s life, no matter how well it paid.
Lesnar has spoken extensively about how much he hated his old lifestyle, which required constant travel and time away from his family. And though so much lip service has been given to how much money Lesnar makes and how little of it he spends, he’d have to have considerable sources of additional income in order to never work again at his young age.
In the days after Lesnar retired (with an active contract with the UFC) from MMA, President Dana White said he would be fine with allowing Lesnar to return to professional wrestling. And according to MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani, White reiterated this sentiment this past weekend.
Lesnar might once again try to become the “Next Big Thing” in the WWE. Do you think he’ll have the same wrecking-ball image now that he’s coming off of consecutive stoppage defeats in the UFC?