• Brock Lesnar returned to WWE Raw on May 18 and attacked Oba Femi with four F5s
• The return revealed his emotional WrestleMania 42 “retirement” was a work
• Paul Heyman handed GM Adam Pearce a signed contract for a Lesnar vs. Femi rematch at Clash in Italy
• WWE had moved Lesnar to their alumni section after WrestleMania to sell the retirement angle
• Lesnar is still expected to ultimately retire at SummerSlam in Minneapolis, his longtime home base

The boots are back on. Brock Lesnar made his stunning return to WWE Raw on Monday night in Greensboro, North Carolina — and he came back swinging.

Oba Femi was in the ring setting up for his weekly open challenge when Lesnar blindsided him from behind, unloading four thunderous F5s on The Ruler and leaving him flat on the canvas. The Beast had a message, and it didn’t need words: the WrestleMania 42 loss isn’t over, and neither is his career.

Moments after the attack, Paul Heyman met with Raw general manager Adam Pearce backstage — where Pearce had already been scrambling to track Lesnar down, having filed retirement paperwork on his behalf. Heyman didn’t come empty-handed. He produced a contract, already bearing Lesnar’s signature, for a rematch against Femi at WWE Clash in Italy — which Heyman called “the biggest rematch in history.” All Femi needs to do is sign.

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How Good Was the Retirement Sell?

Genuinely great. After Femi defeated Lesnar at WrestleMania 42 last month, The Beast removed his boots and gloves and left them in the ring — a time-honored symbolic gesture — before an emotional farewell moment that had the wrestling world convinced he was done. WWE leaned into it hard, moving Lesnar’s profile to the alumni section of their official website.

And then there was Paul Heyman, who appeared to go full method on the whole thing. Speaking to TMZ Sports a few weeks after WrestleMania, The Advocate insisted he had no idea the retirement was coming.

“If I knew he was gonna retire, would have I gone on record saying he’s gonna dominate the next 15 years?” Heyman said. He even defended his ringside tears: “I was crying. Am I that good of an actor that I can cry on cue?”

It was, by any measure, a masterclass in keeping kayfabe alive — the kind of long-game storytelling that makes pro wrestling genuinely compelling when it’s done right.

Triple H was asked in the days after WrestleMania whether that might have been Lesnar’s last match. His answer was careful but telling. “Well, it certainly seemed that way,” the WWE chief said. “Brock is not a walk-back-through-the-curtain-and-have-a-long-conversation guy. Brock walks back very angry, goes to his bus, and that’s the end of it. So there wasn’t a discussion afterward.”

So When Does Lesnar Actually Retire?

That’s the real question now. According to Fightful Select, WWE officials were caught off guard by the WrestleMania retirement tease — many inside the company had expected SummerSlam 2026 to be Lesnar’s true swan song. That reporting lines up with a separate account from WrestleVotes Radio, which said sources still believe Lesnar will hang it up for real at SummerSlam in Minneapolis on August 1st and 2nd at U.S. Bank Stadium.

The Minneapolis connection runs deep. Lesnar attended the University of Minnesota, where he was a two-time All-American wrestler, and has been billed from Minneapolis throughout his entire WWE career. And yet, in all that time, he’s only wrestled two televised matches in the state — the last one way back in January 2004. A retirement in front of a hometown crowd at a massive stadium would be the kind of send-off that writes itself.

For now, though, The Beast has unfinished business. Clash in Italy takes place in Turin at the end of May, and if Oba Femi — who was reportedly furious about getting blindsided — puts his name on that contract, fans are getting at least one more chapter of this rivalry first.

Femi didn’t look like a man who was going to let that attack go unanswered.

The post Brock Lesnar Returns to Raw, Destroys Oba Femi in Revenge Attack appeared first on Cream.

• Roman Reigns was busted open near his left elbow during a savage post-match attack by Jacob Fatu on the May 11 episode of WWE Raw.
• Footage circulating online showed Reigns being checked by WWE medical staff backstage, appearing to favor his left arm.
• The chaos erupted during an Acknowledgment Ceremony where Fatu refused to bow to Reigns despite losing the World Heavyweight Championship match at Backlash.
• Fatu put Reigns and The Usos through the timekeeper’s barricade with a hip attack before the bloody gash was caught on camera.
• With Clash in Italy on May 31 and Night of Champions in June on the horizon, the Reigns-Fatu feud shows no signs of slowing down.

Roman Reigns walked out of WWE Raw on May 11 bleeding — and fans are now wondering just how bad it really was.

The World Heavyweight Champion was left with a deep cut near his left elbow after Jacob Fatu unleashed another brutal assault during what was scheduled as an Acknowledgment Ceremony in Knoxville, Tennessee. The violence escalated fast, and by the time the dust settled, Reigns was being helped to the back by a WWE official with a towel pressed to his arm — and footage of the moment spread across social media almost immediately.

In the video, Reigns appeared visibly uncomfortable, favoring his left arm as he exited the arena. Whether the injury is legitimate or part of the ongoing storyline is the question everyone’s asking right now, but either way, the images were striking enough to get the entire wrestling internet talking before Raw had even fully gone off the air.

How It All Went Down

The segment started with Reigns and Jimmy Uso in the ring, the Tribal Chief soaking in “OTC!” chants from the crowd and demanding acknowledgment from Fatu — who lost his World Heavyweight Championship challenge at Backlash just two nights earlier on May 9. The stipulation had been clear: if Reigns won, Fatu would acknowledge him.

Fatu had other ideas.

Backstage, Jey Uso tried to talk some sense into him before he reached the ring, warning that another attack would only make things worse for the family. Fatu answered with a headbutt and told Jey that Reigns would have to beat acknowledgment out of him. Jimmy tried to cut him off at ringside and got blasted with a right hand and launched into the barricade for his trouble.

Once Fatu got to the ring, Reigns actually held his own early — landing punches and chair shots — but the punishment only seemed to fire Fatu up. The “Samoan Werewolf” came back with uppercuts, clotheslines, headbutts, and multiple Tongan Death Grip attacks before delivering the finishing blow: a thunderous hip attack that sent Reigns and both Usos crashing through the timekeeper’s barricade.

That’s where Reigns sustained the gash. As Jey and Jimmy scrambled to help him up, Fatu rammed into Reigns again near the barricade, and cameras caught blood pouring from the wound on his elbow.

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What’s Next for the Tribal Chief

Reigns is still very much in the thick of his first World Heavyweight Championship reign, which he won just weeks ago at WrestleMania 42 by defeating CM Punk in the main event — a title shot he earned by outlasting 29 other Superstars in the Men’s Royal Rumble back in January. It’s a new chapter for a man who previously held the Undisputed WWE Championship for a staggering 1,316 days before dropping it to Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania 40.

Fatu, for his part, isn’t done. He may have lost at Backlash, but he’s made it abundantly clear he has no intention of acknowledging anyone. That refusal is the engine driving this whole feud — and with Clash in Italy coming on May 31, a rematch could be right around the corner. Night of Champions at the end of June is another possibility, and SummerSlam looms large over everything heading into the back half of the year.

Raw GM Adam Pearce had set up the Acknowledgment Ceremony with the expectation that Fatu would fall in line. Instead, he got one of the most violent segments of the night — and a World Heavyweight Champion who may be heading into the next chapter of his reign with a real injury to manage.

The medical staff was on Reigns quickly, and for now the severity of the elbow wound remains unclear. But the image of the Tribal Chief being helped backstage, towel on his arm, blood on his skin — that one’s going to stick around for a while.

The post Roman Reigns Busted Open on Raw After Jacob Fatu’s Attack appeared first on Cream.

• Asuka lost to IYO SKY at WWE Backlash and shared an emotional post-match embrace that sparked widespread retirement speculation
• Fightful Select confirms Asuka is planned for Monday’s Raw in Knoxville, Tennessee, despite taking time off soon
• Her time off has been planned internally for a while and is not connected to WWE’s recent post-WrestleMania roster cuts
• Asuka signed a long-term WWE deal in the summer of 2024, and sources believe Backlash was not her final match
• Stars including IYO SKY, AJ Styles, Bayley, Charlotte Flair, and Rhea Ripley have all posted tributes following the emotional Backlash moment

Asuka’s WWE future has been the most talked-about topic in wrestling since Saturday night — and now, just hours before Raw, there’s finally something concrete to hold onto.

According to Fightful Select, the Empress of Tomorrow is planned for tonight’s episode of WWE Raw, live from the Food City Center in Knoxville, Tennessee on Netflix. She will be taking some time off, that part is confirmed — but the key detail is that this absence has been in the works internally for a while and has nothing to do with the wave of roster cuts that followed WrestleMania 42, which included the release of her longtime Kabuki Warriors partner Kairi Sane.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson also reported that Asuka was physically present in Knoxville ahead of the show and ready to appear if WWE creative called for it, adding that she is believed to remain “aligned with the company.” Johnson did note a story making the rounds within some WWE circles that Asuka could be returning to Japan to handle a family matter, but stressed that report had not been confirmed and that her presence in Knoxville complicated that narrative considerably.

What Actually Happened at Backlash

The speculation started Saturday night at WWE Backlash in Tampa, Florida, where Asuka and IYO SKY delivered a match that tore the house down. The two traded submissions, reversed each other’s signature moves, and went nearly twenty minutes in a deeply personal student-versus-teacher showdown that the crowd inside the Benchmark International Arena was completely locked into. SKY ultimately got the win, pinning Asuka with a German suplex and moonsault combination.

What happened next is what set the internet on fire. Rather than simply walking to the back, Asuka embraced SKY in the ring, tears in her eyes, before repeatedly waving to the crowd. She blew a kiss. She rolled out slowly while the fans showered her with appreciation. It felt, unmistakably, like a goodbye.

Big E didn’t help quiet the speculation during the Backlash post-show. “I wonder if this is a goodbye,” he said. “I haven’t really seen Asuka this emotional. If this is goodbye, I know she will be dearly missed. She has been a pioneer. She has done just truly incredible things in the ring before she even got to WWE, but has further staked her claim as an all-time great here in WWE.”

Backstage, the mood was just as unclear as it was for fans watching at home. Fightful Select reported that Asuka’s situation appeared to be “a mystery to the locker room, and to a number of people around the creative process, who weren’t sure if this was actually a goodbye.” Even people inside WWE creative were reportedly uncertain whether the emotional scene was an official farewell angle or simply the natural conclusion to a feud.

The “Semi-Retired” Confusion

Dave Meltzer added fuel to the fire on Wrestling Observer Radio after the show, saying he’d been told Asuka is now “semi-retired” — while openly admitting he wasn’t entirely sure what that meant in practice.

“So, the story I heard is that she is semi-retired,” Meltzer said. “I haven’t really gotten an exact meaning of what semi-retired means, but I guess people were wishing her goodbye and things like that backstage. So I don’t know if that means she’s going to Japan and still wrestle. I don’t know if that means she’s going to still do stuff here and there, but I was told semi-retired.”

His co-host Bryan Alvarez simply replied, “That sucks, I’m going to miss Asuka.”

Meltzer and Alvarez even speculated out loud about whether Asuka could have been part of the recent WWE roster cuts — a theory that has since been walked back by multiple outlets. Bodyslam.net’s Viper pushed back on the retirement framing altogether, reporting that Asuka is “out indefinitely” for personal reasons and that, as of the night of Backlash, retirement or semi-retirement “is not the case.”

So for a full day, the wrestling world was essentially dealing with Schrödinger’s Asuka — simultaneously retired and not retired, depending on which report you were reading.

What Fightful’s reporting clarified is that everyone they spoke to believes Backlash was not Asuka’s final match. That was described as a unanimous belief among those in the locker room and around creative. One WWE higher-up told Fightful she was “always reliable no matter what was thrown her way” — the kind of praise you don’t typically offer someone you’re writing off.

Her Contract and What Comes Next

There’s also the matter of Asuka’s contract. Fightful confirmed she signed a new long-term WWE deal in the summer of 2024. The exact length hasn’t been disclosed publicly, but most deals signed during that period were reportedly for five years — which would make a full retirement right now a complicated proposition.

There has been broader reporting that TKO has been working to restructure some talent deals as the company’s live event schedule has shifted dramatically, with house shows significantly reduced and performers working far fewer dates than previous generations. Whether Asuka’s situation intersects with any of those restructuring conversations isn’t confirmed.

What is confirmed: she’s not among the released talent. That list, which dropped on April 24, included Kairi Sane — and that release has been its own source of frustration backstage. Multiple sources told Fightful there was significant disappointment over WWE investing television time into the Asuka-Kairi storyline without ever paying off Kairi’s role in the arc. The Tampa crowd chanted “We Want Kairi” during the Backlash match itself, which tells you everything about how that decision landed with fans. Whether Asuka shared those frustrations internally was not confirmed.

The Tributes Keep Coming

While the reports swirled, the wrestling world didn’t wait for an official announcement to show Asuka how they feel.

IYO SKY posted an emotional message after the show, calling their Backlash match the conclusion of their shared story. “Our story comes to its final chapter with today’s match,” SKY wrote. “The moment the match ended, my heart was filled with all sorts of emotions. Meeting ASUKA-san, spending the same time together, being able to learn so much up close — these are irreplaceable treasures to me. Thank you so much ASUKA-san. We love you ASUKA-san.”

AJ Styles, who retired from in-ring competition himself earlier this year at the Royal Rumble, posted a photo of himself and Asuka from his own retirement segment on Raw with a simple, direct message: “I don’t know the facts, but I know @wwe_asuka will be a Hall of Famer.”

Bayley called Asuka and IYO SKY “two of the rarest wrestlers in the entire world.” Rhea Ripley praised the match itself, writing, “Phenomenal! Best of the best!” Natalya said you could “feel their passion” in every moment. Michin kept it short and sweet: “We love Asuka around here.” Charlotte Flair and Shinsuke Nakamura both posted photos of her — and when a fan asked Flair what her post implied, she simply said she was “just a fan.”

Even Ash By Elegance from TNA Wrestling weighed in, noting she was “blessed” to have been Asuka’s first match in WWE: “Honored… Legend! Sexy muscle friend.”

For a performer who joined WWE in 2015, went undefeated for 914 days, became the inaugural Women’s Royal Rumble winner, and collected four main roster Women’s Championships, one NXT Women’s title, five Women’s Tag Team reigns, a Money in the Bank briefcase, and a Grand Slam — the outpouring makes complete sense. Asuka is, by any measure, one of the most decorated women in WWE history.

Tonight’s Raw will tell us something. Whether Asuka appears on screen, addresses the crowd, or simply works the show without appearing on camera, her presence in Knoxville means this story isn’t finished yet. The Empress isn’t done — she’s just taking a breath.

The post Asuka Planned for Raw Despite Retirement Rumors appeared first on Cream.