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AEW’s Chris Jericho isn’t convinced that Lesnar would leave WWE, and believes this is just “another one of the dances that Vince and Brock like to have”
As soon as reports of Brock Lesnar’s free agency broke, the MMA world started buzzing again about a potential return for the former UFC heavyweight champion. Dana White said he would like to put him against Jon Jones if he’s “seriously interested,” while Scott Coker wants it to be against Fedor Emelianenko in Bellator “if he’s truly available.”
If you ask fellow pro-wrestling star Chris Jericho though, those are pretty big “ifs” as he doesn’t really consider Lesnar to even be a free agent now.
“I don’t think he’s really a free agent at all. I think it would take so much money to pry him away from Vince McMahon on Brock’s end and then for Vince to approve that,” Jericho told Sportskeeda.
“I mean, Vince has two billion dollars in the bank. What are you going to spend on Brock Lesnar that Vince isn’t going to match? And Vince and Brock have a strange love affair, to begin with.”
Jericho previously left WWE to sign a lucrative deal with AEW, but he doesn’t think that — or a UFC return — is a realistic option for Lesnar. He thinks this is simply just another “dance” between Lesnar and McMahon.
“So would Brock fit in at AEW? Would he pay back his salary that you would pay him to be in AEW? Who’s to say, but I think UFC, AEW… I think it’s just another one of the dances that Vince and Brock like to have where Brock’s contract expires, Vince lets it expire, and then they stay away from each other until the next Saudi Arabia show or the next show that has people in the crowd, or WrestleMania, whatever it may be. So I don’t think Brock is really a free agent in the sense of the word, I just think he’s like currently not under contract right now.
“The amount of money it would take him to tear him away from from the world of WWE would, A, be astronomical, B, Vince will never allow it to happen and, C, I don’t know if you could make that investment back, or if it would even be worth it for AEW at this point in time or UFC, or any company other than WWE.”
For years, Lesnar used a potential return to mixed martial arts as a way to get a better deal with the WWE, and Jericho seems to agree with that sentiment. The numbers seem to also back that idea, with SBN’s pro wrestling site Cageside Seats also chiming in with some analysis on the financial side of the equation.
I can’t see a scenario where Vince fails to come up with whatever dollar figured is needed to make Lesnar happy. Lesnar has been back in the WWE fold for nearly 8.5 years now, and he remains the strongest booked star in the promotion. He gets paid huge money to work limited dates, and WWE is on track to have one of their most profitable years ever. There’s just no way that Vince McMahon will allow Brock to wrestle anywhere else.
Jericho doesn’t directly state it, but he’s also on the right track when he dances around the idea that Lesnar’s financial demands don’t make any sense for AEW. Lesnar was a huge draw in the world of MMA, but it’s not clear at all what his drawing power is right now in pro wrestling. WWE is overflowing in so much money that it probably doesn’t even matter to them if Brock is a poor return on investment. AEW won’t approach contract negotiations with that same mindset, and it would likely lead to a situation where they come nowhere close to offering Lesnar the incredibly lucrative deal he can get from WWE.
Finally, Lesnar is a poor fit for AEW because just about all of their pay-per-view matches go at least ten minutes, and that’s a foreign concept for Brock Lesnar over the last several years. He’s going to need massive overtime pay for that kind of work.
Lesnar is now 43-years-old, and hasn’t competed in MMA since 2016. Since that victory over Mark Hunt was overtuned, Lesnar’s last official win was over a decade ago, against Shane Carwin.