John Cena lost the Undisputed WWE Championship to Cody Rhodes in the main event of SummerSlam Night 2, and it was only moments later that Brock Lesnar made his shocking return. He took Cena out with an F5, setting the stage for this longtime feud to be reignited.
While The Beast's return has excited many fans (his new t-shirts quickly shot to the top of the best-seller charts on WWEShop.com), others have criticised WWE for bringing Lesnar back. Why? Well, he was named over 40 times in Janel Grant's sexual abuse and trafficking lawsuit filed against former WWE Chairman Vince McMahon.
It was alleged that Lesnar agreed to meet with Grant as a bonus, of sorts, for signing a contract. However, Lesnar isn't being sued, and WWE clearly felt he's far removed enough to finally be brought back to television after a two-year absence.
Appearing on The Ariel Helwani Show, Lesnar's former advocate, Paul Heyman, shared new insights into his longtime friend's comeback.
"That happened real quick," he explained. "Week, two weeks, a couple weeks, I got tagged into it after the deal was done. He wasn’t coming back on speculation. No, he is Brock Lesnar."
Addressing the backlash, Heyman said, "Everything in life is met with criticism. I don’t pay attention to that. He’s here. That’s a reality of the fact he’s here. And if you were in MetLife Stadium on Sunday, you would understand that return meant a lot to that audience. That’s our paying audience. They’re happy to see him. I’m happy to be part of a team that presents him."
"There’s always going to be critics of anything that we do," he continued. "Obviously, the decision was made. It’s time to bring back Brock Lesnar. Whatever that decision is based on, I respect it. If there are critics of it, get over it. He’s here, and he’s going to be here, and you ain’t going to be able to cancel him."
For Heyman, the explosive reaction to Lesnar inside MetLife Stadium told him everything he needed to know. "I’m happy to have him back, because the audience is happy to have him back. If we brought him back and the audience rebelled against it, I wouldn’t be happy to have him back and be like, 'Oh man, this doesn’t work.' But it works. So I’m happy about it."
Despite the social media backlash, the majority of mainstream media outlets don't care enough about professional wrestling to cover this. As long as crowds react the way they did on Sunday, WWE no doubt feels it has all the justification it needs to bring Lesnar back into the fold.
You can hear more from Heyman in the player below.