Brock Lesnar’s last match for WWE was a loss to Cody Rhodes at last year’s SummerSlam on August 5, 2023. Unsurprisingly, Lesnar’s name was thrown around a potential surprise entrant this year’s Royal Rumble event. However, when WWE former employee Janel Grant’s lawsuit against the company and former Chairman Vince McMahon became public on January 25, Lesnar was heavily implied to have been involved with her. In a new interview, WWE executive Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque provided a new update on a potential Lesnar return.

Will Brock Lesnar Return to WWE?

Triple H tells Daily Mail that Brock Lesnar is enjoying life up in Canada with his family and the ball is in his court.

While he was not named in the lawsuit, Grant shared that McMahon made her send personalized sexual content to “a former UFC Heavyweight Champion and WWE talent” in March 2020. She claims that McMahon wanted her to get involved with Lesnar to negotiate for Lesnar to reach a new deal with WWE.

Grant also alleged that the former WWE Chairman wanted Lesnar to have a sexual encounter with her as a way to reach an agreement, but it didn’t end up happening. The implication of Lesnar’s involvement in the lawsuit quickly led to many believing that he was the WWE talent she was referencing, and he has been off TV since.

The lawsuit is currently on hold as the Department of Justice launched a federal investigation on McMahon on May 30.

During the WrestleMania 40 post-media conference on April 6, Levesque shared that Lesnar was still in the company but was at home. Since then, the former WWE Champion has been mentioned on TV but hasn’t shown signs of a comeback.

Triple H and Brock Lesnar’s History

Brock Lesnar and Triple H are both legendary WWE Superstars, but Lesnar has a dominant 3-1 record over Triple H in their head-to-head matches, which have mostly been high-stakes and extreme stipulation encounters.?

• June 2022: Brock Lesnar successfully defended the WWE Heavyweight Title against Triple H in a non-televised match at the WWE RAW House Show in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
• August 2012: Brock Lesnar defeated Triple H in a No Disqualification match at WWE SummerSlam.
• April 2013: Triple H defeated Brock Lesnar in a No Holds Barred match where his career was on the line at WrestleMania XXIX.
• May 2013: Brock Lesnar beat Triple H in a Steel Cage match at Extreme Rules 2013.

Full Match: Watch the Triple H vs. Brock Lesnar No Holds Barred Match from WrestleMania XXIX from April 2013:

WWE fans have been enjoying the direction the company has been going under the creative leadership of Paul Levesque(AKA Triple H). For years. the company has faced issues like plans being changed during a TV episode to the last minute with Vince McMahon at the helm. However, creativity has seemingly run more smoothly with Levesque in charge, and superstars like Becky Lynch appreciate the shift. 

In an interview with Getting Over: Wrestling Podcast, ‘The Man’ discussed the differences in WWE creative under Levesque and McMahon. She shared that consistency is the main factor and praised the former nine-time WWE Champion for his long-term storytelling. 

“…Paul tends to have a long-term vision of something and an idea of something and then executes, whereas before, you know, it was notorious that the show was being rewritten as it was going, and we were live on TV, and people didn’t know what was happening in the third hour and there would be stories that would start and then Vince would change his mind and so with Paul, he sees things through and for better or worse that gives a different viewing experience,” said Lynch.

‘The Man’ also explained why it’s important to let storylines develop over time as intended rather than nixing them altogether. 

“…You might not like the story on week two, but you don’t know where it’s going on week four, and so if we listen to people that saying ‘Yeah, but we don’t like the story on week two,’ well then you might never get the magic that you were going to get on week four, and so I think it’s important to listen to the audience to a certain degree,” said Lynch.

More On Becky Lynch’s Thoughts On Storytelling

Lynch went into detail about storytelling and why letting things play out as intended over time is good. The former WWE Smackdown Women’s Champion used herself as an example from when she was feuding with Bianca Belair and defeated her in 26 seconds at WWE SummerSlam on August 21, 2021. 

She noted that the fans didn’t like some of the ‘heel’ things she did during her rivalry and that it was meant to elicit negative reactions. 

“…You were meant to be outraged. You were meant to want to see her succeed, and then I think I started talking about her hair, and people were outraged that I might touch her hair,” said Lynch. She continued, “…If you don’t know where we are going… also, I am a heel. You are meant to be outraged by the things that I do, and please understand that is a heel. Heel isn’t like somebody that gives cool zingers. It is somebody that is unlikable that you want to see the babyface overthrow. Doesn’t always work out.”

Lynch reaffirmed her stance that it is good to see things through, which is something that WWE is doing more under Levesque’s leadership. It seems WWE creatively is in a better place than it has been for their talent and fans. Hopefully, the company’s momentum will continue and allow for more creative storytelling that can make for great weekly TV programming. 

Yesterday, we reported on how Chris Smith at Forbes had put together a list of WWE’s highest paid wrestlers. While lists of this kind have gone around for years, they’re usually of some nebulous origin or an incredibly unreliable source like CelebrityNetWorth. This is different, however: Not only is it from Forbes, the magazine of record for finance, but it’s also an actual Forbes staff writer as opposed to their larger contributor network. Nothing against them, but they weren’t hired with the financial angle in mind. Since it’s a Forbes article from a Forbes staffer, the list is being taken a lot more seriously than these things usually are.

In his article, Smith claims that “Over the last year we’ve pored over court documents, SEC filings and WWE’s booking contracts and spent hours speaking with industry sources, allowing us to construct the first ever FORBES list of WWE’s Highest-Paid Wrestlers.” Let’s take a look at the list again:

1. John Cena: 9.5 million
2. Brock Lesnar: 6.0 million
3. Triple H: 2.8 million
4. Randy Orton: 2.7 million
5. Seth Rollins: 2.4 million
6. Roman Reigns: 2.1 million
7. Undertaker: 2.0 million
8. Big Show: 1.5 million
9. Kane: 1.3 million
10. Dean Ambrose: 1.1 million

So, what do we know about the numbers on Smith’s list for Forbes?

The only one whose pay would come up in SEC filing is Triple H, since he’s an executive officer of WWE under his real name of Paul Levesque. This does appear to be correct: If you don’t include stock awards, and Smith didn’t, he made $2,812,629 in 2015. That’s broken down as $573,269 in salary for his executive role, $526,000 in incentive plan compensation, and $1,713,360 for his pay as talent, $1 million of which is his contracted downside guarantee. There’s a note that “Mr. Levesque has out-earned this minimum guarantee in each of the past several years.”

Randy Orton and John Cena both had divorces, though only Orton’s finances went public as a result. TMZ reported that at the time of the July 2013 divorce, Orton was making $291,666 a month, or just $8 short of $3.5 million in a year. It’s not clear if that was his total 2012 pay or what, as the belief is that WWE’s downside guarantees never top $1 million. Cena did have his annual earnings pegged as about $10 million by Wrestling Observer editor Dave Meltzer in January, while Meltzer has also reported Brock Lesnar’s pay in the past because he gets a flat fee per appearance. In the past, Meltzer has said something to the effect of how these days, it’s understood that The Undertaker’s $1 million guarantee is considered his WrestleMania payoff. With additional appearances headlining SummerSlam and Hell in a Cell last year, $2 million sounds reasonable.

It gets hazier after that as you move further down the line.

In a deposition that I cited in my January article for SBNation about Big Show’s flirtation with boxing, Big Show said that when he returned to WWE in 2008, he asked for $1.25 million and a $250,000 signing bonus…but that was eight years ago and it’s not clear in the public filings if he even got what he wanted. A deposition with his wife, who apparently handles their finances, had her testifying that she didn’t think he made any bonuses on top of his base salary. That would be unusual for a full time WWE performer, but it could also have to do with confusion over the nature of WWE contracts. WWE pay works two ways: You can just take your per-event pay and royalties as they come, or you can take your downside guarantee as a salary and get a balloon payment at the end of the year for what goes over the guarantee. Since he has little merchandise, $1.5 million doesn’t sound outrageously low, though.

Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Kane, and Dean Ambrose all have little to no information out there about their pay. Kane recently put his home up on the market and it was huge, sprawling property with a house customized to his specific needs as a very tall man, but because he’s based in Knoxville, Tennessee, the price was dramatically less than you’d think, coming in under $1 million.  The rest seem realistic enough.

What do you think of the list? Let us know in the comments.

WWE doing a “cruiserweight show” of some kind as a WWE Network project has been rumored for years now, going back even before the network launched. Back in 2012, when WWE was first shooting pilots at Full Sail University before the launch of the current version of NXT, one of those pilots was some kind of cruiserweight show. The rumors kept going as for a while, disappeared last year, and finally returned a few months ago when it finally got close to reality. Yesterday, WWE finally announced the Global Cruiserweight Series, which is coming in July with 32 wrestlers from around the world.

There’s always been a complicated relationship between WWE and smaller wrestlers. Historically, even long before Vincent Kennedy McMahon was in charge, the WWWF/the Capitol Wrestling Corporation was a territory built around bigger wrestlers working a slower style, with a heroic champion slaying giants in main events. That a big (pun not intended) reason why the rings are bigger and were historically harder than other promotions’ rings for many years, as well. That informed McMahon’s preferences, and so on and so forth.

Even when they eventually tried, they badly missed the mark. In 1997, after the cruiserweight division became a key ingredient in WCW’s success, the WWF light heavyweight division was launched. The problem was that it was badly mismatched mix of great junior heavyweights from around the world (TAKA Michinoku, Mr. Aguila, Pantera, and so on) with whatever shorter wrestlers they had hesitated in signing before, like Scott Putski and Brian Christopher (who was a great performer, but wrong stylistically). It never clicked, and eventually disappeared from TV for long stretches of time. Eventually, it improved, and while there were hiccups, the version that inherited the WCW Cruiserweight Championship as a WWE belt featured good action in the style fans wanted.

Until it vanished after Hornswoggle won the title.

So you can see how WWE introducing the Global Cruiserweight series is a big change, In context, though, it’s not surprising at tall that it’s happening now. PWInsider’s interview with Triple H yesterday made it very clear.that this is one of his projects, and, well, look at what’s happened with NXT. If this was ever going to happen, it was going to happen now. WWE is now actively recruiting from “workrate indies,” the same people they laughed at a decade ago, and paid good money to lure Shinsuke Nakamura from New Japan Pro Wrestling. Even if the main roster shows still have issues, this is not the WWE we used to know.

Of course, the question is if any of this can make its way to the main shows. Triple H is not in charge of the main roster shows, Vince McMahon is. Based on how Raw has looked as of late, it seems like it could be a long time before any of this is reflected on “Vince’s” shows. But it’s a start.

The following is a breakdown of WWE executive pay. Senior management within the company currently consists of Vince McMahon (CEO), George Barrios (CFO & Chief Strategy Officer), Michelle Wilson (Chief Revenue Officer and Chief Marketing Officer), Stephanie McMahon (Chief Branding Officer), Paul Levesque (Executive Vice President, Talent, Live Events and Creative), Kevin Dunn (Executive Producer), Casey Collins (Executive Vice President of Consumer Products), Michael Luisi (President, WWE Studios), Gerret Meier (Executive Vice President, International), Laura Brevetti (Senior Vice President, General Counsel) and Basil DeVito Jr. (Senior Advisor, Business Strategy).

The current base salaries are Vince McMahon at $1,184,500, George Barrios at $700,000, Triple H at $550,000 (as well as a $1 million per year contract as a talent), Kevin Dunn at $700,000 and Michael Luisi at $600,000.

Actual total compensation, which includes stock grants, for the top WWE executives in 2013 saw Vince McMahon end up with $1,724,958 (McMahon doesn’t receive additional stock grants since he owns so much company stock to begin with). In 2012, McMahon’s earnings were $2,456,359, and in 2011 were $1,111,395. The difference in 2011 was mainly because McMahon earned no additional compensation from profit incentives in 2011. The profit levels needed for incentives to begin for senior management lowered in 2012, so he ended up earning an additional $1.3 million that way.

Also in 2013, Barrios earned $1,378,197. Triple H earned $2,511,331 in 2013. His actual earnings as a talent between match payoffs, as well as merchandise and licensing money was $1,868,639. In 2012, HHH made $2,912,231, which was $488,482 in executive salary, $305,000 in profit sharing incentive bonuses and $2,118,769 as a talent. In 2011, Triple H earned $336,538 as an executive, $74,100 in stock grants and $2,074,042 as a talent, for a total of $2,484,680 for the year.

In 2013, Dunn earned $1,744,184. Luisi earned $1,403,228. Stephanie McMahon earned $778,394 in 2013, $325,000 of which was as a television talent.

As far as WWE stock goes, Vince McMahon is obviously the top earner, with 39,272,641 shares, which has a current value of approximately $1.21 billion. Linda McMahon, who has 9,066,770 shares, which is currently valued at $280.2 million. Stephanie McMahon has 2,511,071, so despite her selling off so much stock last year, with the recent stock increase, she’s still worth about $77.6 million in stock alone. Triple H owns 50,764 shares, which is currently valued at $1.57 million.

Despite the rumor that AMC Networks was interested in purchasing controlling interest in WWE, investors don’t believe that Vince McMahon would be willing to sell controlling interest in his company. However, there is apparently some concern over what would take place if something were to happen to McMahon.

The general feeling is that Stephanie McMahon has taken a step back lately, and that Paul Levesque (Triple H) is not someone who could legitimately take over the role as CEO of a public company. Basically, while HHH has great knowledge of the wrestling business itself, his actual years of experience in management, as well as the non-wrestling obligations that a CEO has to deal with, is not something he has expertise in.

This would pretty much leave current WWE executives Michelle Wilson and/or George Barrios in the lead. The question on Barrios is his knowledge of the modern media landscape, as well as the wrestling side of things. In the case of Wilson, her knowledge of the wrestling aspect is also a question.