Update on Brock Lesnar’s potential WWE retirement timeline
WWE’s plans for 2026 could potentially include the retirement of Brock Lesnar.
During an interview on Insight with Chris Van Vliet that was released earlier this week, John Cena discussed his loss to Lesnar from WWE Wrestlepalooza and said that, from his perspective, he was building up Lesnar for whoever beats him in the future. Cena mentioned that Lesnar could possibly be retiring soon at a show in Minnesota.
WWE SummerSlam 2026 is being held at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis on August 1-2. That would make sense for Lesnar’s retirement given that Minnesota was once his home and he was a legendary amateur wrestler there.
In the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer mentioned that he’s heard WWE has working plans for retirement runs for Lesnar, AJ Styles, and potentially Chris Jericho. Styles has already announced that he will be retiring at some point in 2026. Jericho is still under contract with AEW currently but is rumored to be returning to WWE after the end of this year.
“There is a story going around that Lesnar will retire at SummerSlam 2026. I can’t confirm that date but did at least a month [ago] hear that the working plans for 2026 would be the WWE retirement runs for Lesnar, Styles and potentially Jericho if he signs,” Meltzer wrote. “I didn’t get the impression it was locked in except for Styles, who has made it clear it will be in 2026 but not when. But the Lesnar name has been talked about, which is probably where the story came from.”
Lesnar returned to WWE at this year’s SummerSlam and has wrestled twice since then, defeating Cena at Wrestlepalooza and then being part of the winning men’s team at Survivor Series: WarGames. WWE President Nick Khan recently told The Daniel Cormier Show that WWE is “honored” to have Lesnar back.
The 48-year-old Lesnar is already advertised for the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania in 2026.
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.