I Wasn't Convinced Brock Lesnar Actually Retired At WrestleMania 42 Until I Saw WWE's Latest Update

In a valiant yet unsuccessful effort against Oba Femi at WrestleMania 42, Brock Lesnar suffered a mighty Fall From Grace powerbomb that would fell the Beast Incarnate. And following that pinfall loss, he reflected, took off his gloves and boots and symbolically gestured farewell to the WWE Universe. Pay your respects to Lesnar's illustrious career by grabbing this Thank You Brock T-Shirt. The graphics printed across the chest are sure to call to mind an unforgettable matchup and a moment that the sports entertainment world isn't soon to forget.

The shirts don't mean much to me as far as "official" confirmations go, seeing as it's entirely possible the marketing team already had Lesnar's farewell merchandise on standby for later this year. What does grab my attention is the description, which seems to stop just short of saying he retired in the ring. I guess avoiding the use of the word leaves the door open if he changes his mind, but then why make a big deal about it at the live event if there's a chance he might waffle on it?

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While there was never any confirmation that Brock Lesnar intended to retire at this year's SummerSlam, which is being held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, there's a tangible connection. A South Dakota native, Lesnar transferred from Bismarck State College to the University of Minnesota, where he competed and won out in wrestling competitions. (He also briefly signed with the Vikings in 2004, but to no avail.)

Also, his match with Oba Femi seemed like a stepping stone on his way to ultimately being retired by the WWE's new "legend killer," Gunther. It seems those plans changed, or maybe never existed, but it doesn't appear likely we'll see Brock Lesnar again in the company until he's nominated to the Hall of Fame.

Of course, this is the WWE, and it'll probably be months or years before fans get the real story of what happened. Right now, there's a working theory that Brock Lesnar's retirement in the ring was an unplanned event, but I have trouble believing that, considering the PLE is a timed show. His prolonged time saying farewell could've impacted someone else's match time, or impacted the number of commercials that could be run. Perhaps it wasn't the plan for Lesnar to retire, but someone on the production team had to have some sort of heads-up not to cut the cameras before he exited the ring.

I'm still not 100% sure that Brock Lesnar is done performing in the WWE, though I'd say the recent shirt sales have me 90% sure. I can't imagine him wanting to return to lose to Gunther after already having the perfect sendoff in the ring following a loss to rising star Oba Femi. Sorry, Gunther, it looks like Femi will always be known as the person who slayed The Beast Incarnate.

Monday Night Raw airs live on Netflix on Mondays at 8:00 p.m. ET. We'll see how this fresh cycle of WWE programming kicks off, and how things may change now that The Beast is gone, and other superstars are on top.