Last night at WWE SummerSlam, Brock Lesnar surprisingly returned after Cody Rhodes defeated John Cena to become the new Undisputed WWE Champion. "The Beast Incarnate's" appearance was met with a thunderous response from the audience at MetLife Stadium, but the wrestling world has been split on the decision to bring him back due tohis name being mentioned in the Janel Grant lawsuit filed against Vince McMahon for sex trafficking. Since the news broke, many have questioned when Lesnar had clearance to return to WWE, and according to Dave Meltzer, the former world champion was given the green light well in advance.
"Four weeks ago, WWE legal cleared him," Meltzer said on the "Wrestling Observer Radio." Everything relates to the Janel Grant lawsuit ... either they're confident that things going to arbitration and Lesnar's not a factor at that point or they're close to a settlement and then at that point Lesnar's not a factor or somebody there just had a change of mind."
Meltzer also confirmed that the reason WWE did not hold their usual post-show press conference after SummerSlam was due to Lesnar's return, as they did not want to face questions from the media. Additionally, he went into further detail about why Lesnar was not brought back into the company sooner.
"It was not a moral decision to keep him off, it was a legal decision by the lawyers. Would WWE, [Paul] Levesque, Nick Khan, would they have used him if legal said yes? Well guess what? Legal said yes, so you know our answer."
Finally, Meltzer revealed that Lesnar was never removed by WWE following the lawsuit and had continued to be paid by the company. "They never fired Brock. He was always under contract. He was always getting paid. He was never suspended. They just didn't use him for legal reasons."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Wrestling Observer Radio" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
