In a surprising move, Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins for the WWE Universal Championship kicked off the WrestleMania 35 main card at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
At the beginning of the show, Paul Heyman came out to announce Lesnar would be opening the show if he was not able to headline the event.
Heyman then dropped a line that strongly hinted at the long-rumored UFC return for Lesnar by saying after Wrestlemania they were heading to Las Vegas where Brock is “ultimately” appreciated.
Paul Haymen just said Brock Lesnar is opening #WrestleMania and then he's off to Las Vegas where he'll be "Ultimately appreciated."
— Chamatkar Sandhu (@SandhuMMA) April 7, 2019
At the beginning of his match, Lesnar was dominated Rollins and clearly overpowering him. However, after the referee was knocked out of the ring, Rollins hit Lesnar with a low blow and changed the tone of the fight.
Rollins then took advantage of the momentum and landed three consecutive curb stomps to seal the win and claim the championship.
Well… what did you expect from THE #BEASTSLAYER?!@WWERollins #WrestleMania pic.twitter.com/jBhfamNs5O
— WWE (@WWE) April 7, 2019
So now that Lesnar is no longer champion does that set up his UFC return? Well, according to recent reports, the UFC is looking to book the heavyweight title fight between the current champion and former champ in August — which would be UFC 240.
An exact date, location, and venue, however, were not announced.
Yesterday’s SportsCenter segment on Khabib-Conor, DC-Brock and Sonnen-Machida. pic.twitter.com/zDy0LWWsT9
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) April 4, 2019
Lesnar last fought on July 9, 2016, at UFC 200. He scored a unanimous decision win over Mark Hunt, but the bout was later overturned to a no contest after Lesnar tested positive for clomiphene. The WWE champ holds a professional MMA record of 5-3, 1 NC.
Cormier, meanwhile, holds a pro record of 22-1 (1 NC). His most recent win was a UFC heavyweight title defense over Derrick Lewis at UFC 230 on November 3, 2018. Cormier has not suffered an official loss since January 3, 2015, at UFC 182 when he lost a decision to former light heavyweight champion Jon Jones. Jones also scored a knockout win over cormier at UFC 214 in July 2017, but that was overturned after Jones tested positive for turinabol.
