Oba Femi says Brock Lesnar WWE Royal Rumble faceoff was a ‘teaser’
WWE was gauging how fans would react when the company had Oba Femi and Brock Lesnar interact in the Royal Rumble.
Recently called up from NXT, Femi officially arrived on the main roster as an entrant in the 2026 men’s Royal Rumble. He entered in the number one spot and was in the match for nearly 40 minutes before being eliminated by Brock Lesnar. Femi told No Contest Wrestling that he was happy their faceoff drew a response from the fans in Saudi Arabia, because sometimes online buzz doesn’t translate with casual fans.
Femi believes so much more between him and Lesnar can happen down the line, with their Rumble interactions setting the stage for a future “big-money fight.”
“I got to interact with him, but not too much on the wrestling because it was always designed to be a teaser,” Femi responded when asked if he and Lesnar got the chance to go over what they would be doing in the Rumble backstage.
“Just to see how the people react to it. That’s what a lot of wrestling is. It’s not like everyone just knows, because a lot of times it’s just like, let’s do this, let’s plant this seed, let’s see what the crowd does. And based off of what the crowd does, that’s going to be our next move. So there wasn’t too much interaction into it. Like, it was just — it was a faceoff, it was a teaser. We knew what it was from the jump. Now we know we have something. Like, we really have something. And I think going from here now, we’ll probably have more interaction down the line.”
Lesnar’s plans for WrestleMania 42 have not been confirmed yet, so it’s possible Femi could end up being his opponent. WWE has announced that Lesnar will be appearing on the February 23 episode of Raw in Atlanta. Femi is a “free agent” in storyline and has yet to officially join either Raw or SmackDown.
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.