Brock Lesnar Made Millions In WWE Without Working For 2 Years

Brock Lesnar recently returned at SummerSlam 2025, following John Cena’s match against Cody Rhodes. It seems like WWE is planning to reignite Lesnar and Cena’s rivalry, with Lesnar as the heel and Cena once again adopting a babyface role.

Lesnar’s return on the show was a massive surprise for fans, who hadn’t been expecting him to return to the ring again. Over the past two years, there were many rumors of Lesnar being banned from the company with pending legal action in a lawsuit involving Vince McMahon.

But a new report from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter says that not only was Lesnar still with WWE during the past two years, he was also making millions per year without doing anything on television. This is another contract situation that has been making headlines on the internet now. Recently, Karrion Kross came under the spotlight after his WWE contract seemingly expired.

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Brock Lesnar Returned To WWE After Two Years At SummerSlam 2025

At SummerSlam 2023, Brock Lesnar and Cody Rhodes went one-on-one, with The American Nightmare emerging victorious. Lesnar disappeared from WWE after this, and even then, there were speculations regarding his wrestling future. He was supposed to return at the Fastlane premium live event, but those plans were later axed for some reason. Another report said that he would show up at the Royal Rumble 2024, but the timing of Janel Grant’s lawsuit and Lesnar’s implied involvement forced WWE to pull him from their plans.

It wasn’t as if they had blacklisted him from WWE. Lesnar was no longer part of WWE’s programming, but he would still get mentioned directly or indirectly at times. Now, this in itself doesn’t reflect his standing within the company, but it showed that he and WWE weren’t exactly on bad terms.

If it weren’t for the negative PR, Lesnar probably would’ve returned a lot sooner than he did. At the age of 48, many fans even expected Lesnar to just call it a day and enjoy his retirement. But as we know, Lesnar returned at SummerSlam 2025 and has started a program with John Cena.

Details About Brock Lesnar’s Return And His Contract Situation

On the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer revealed that Lesnar was going to return to WWE eventually. He was still being paid for the past two years, and while Meltzer didn’t explicitly talk about his salary, everyone knows that Lesnar is one of the highest-paid wrestlers in WWE. The company was only waiting for the legal team to green-light his return, and they did that a few weeks back.

“Lesnar was still, even though not used, fully paid during that time period and was among the highest paid wrestlers in the company. He was never suspended and obviously kept under contract. If what he did was going to end their relationship with him, he’d have been let go. That’s the reality. He was always going to return when legal cleared him. Legal cleared him about one month prior to the show, which was kept secret, and allowed for the return.”

Lesnar’s return was kept a secret backstage, known only to a select few within WWE. This move has received backlash from many fans. Janel Grant’s legal team weighed in, accusing WWE of attempting to “sweep misconduct under the rug.”

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