Eric Bischoff believes WWE made the right decision by using Brock Lesnar to elevate Oba Femi at SummerSlam, although he admits the storyline leading up to the match never fully worked for him.
Speaking on 83 Weeks, Bischoff noted that he hadn’t watched SummerSlam Night One in full, instead basing his opinion on match clips, reports and Conrad Thompson’s recap.
“I didn’t get to see the match, obviously, but based on what you’ve described and laid out, and what I read, and some of the stuff that I’ve seen online since, it’s still cumbersome to me—the whole retirement thing and leaving the boots in the ring and then unretiring with no explanation from the get-go.”
Bischoff said the angle surrounding Lesnar’s apparent retirement after WrestleMania 42, followed by his return just weeks later, never came together as a compelling story.
“This has been a funky story. I’m not even going to call it a story. It’s been a funky situation. It’s not worthy of a story.”
Lesnar famously left his gloves in the ring following his WrestleMania loss to Femi, a gesture many interpreted as retirement. However, he returned soon afterward, attacked Femi on Raw, defeated him at Clash in Italy and ultimately lost their Hell in a Cell rematch at SummerSlam.
While critical of the build, Bischoff praised WWE’s long-term decision to establish Femi as one of the company’s future stars.
“I think it’s a great move. It could have been done so much better without the clunkiness. But based on what I’ve seen, he has a hell of a lot of potential.”
Bischoff also cautioned that WWE should lean into Femi’s physical presence rather than trying to turn him into a high-flying attraction.
“Because of his size, he shouldn’t go out there and try to be a gymnast. He shouldn’t look like Cirque du Soleil meets sports entertainment.”
As for Lesnar, Bischoff believes the time has come for WWE to transition away from one of its biggest stars.
“It’s time. It’s definitely time. Where else can you go with Brock? You either feed him, like the monster he truly is, as long as you can, or you’ve got to put him out to pasture, and it sounds like they’re putting him out to pasture.”
Femi defeated Lesnar in 11:39 inside Hell in a Cell after hitting Fall From Grace. Following the match, Lesnar returned to the ring, raised Femi’s hand and told the Minneapolis crowd that Femi is the future while he is the past.
Although the post-match moment felt like a symbolic passing of the torch, Lesnar has not officially announced his retirement, and WWE has yet to confirm whether the SummerSlam main event was his final match.
