Oba Femi's arrival as a genuine WWE main-event talent took its decisive step on Sunday night in Las Vegas, as the Nigerian powerhouse defeated Brock Lesnar in the opening match of WrestleMania 42 Night 2 at Allegiant Stadium. The result, an emphatic one off a chokeslam into Femi's Fall From Grace finisher, also appears to have closed the door on Lesnar's in-ring career.
Femi had accepted a WrestleMania open challenge issued by Lesnar and Paul Heyman on Raw in late March. The build followed a familiar torch-passing arc, including a memorable segment where Femi hit Lesnar with a Fall From Grace and pointed to the WrestleMania sign. Sunday night delivered on that set-up in the most unambiguous way possible.
The match sequence was short for a Lesnar main-card outing, just under ten minutes, with Femi no-selling an F-5 attempt midway through before finishing with the chokeslam-into-Fall-From-Grace combination. Michael Cole's call at the three-count, 'Oba Femi is the next big thing', was an intentional echo of the line that introduced Lesnar himself to the WWE audience in 2002.
Lesnar's post-match gestures were the story that pushed the moment past a simple upset. The former WWE and UFC champion removed his gloves and boots, placed them in the centre of the ring and embraced Heyman before spending several minutes shaking hands with ringside fans. The crowd responded with a 'thank you Lesnar' chant, a tribute that mirrors the ones given to Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair in their WrestleMania finales.
Lesnar has been in and out of WWE programming since 2019, splitting time between wrestling and his ranch in Saskatchewan, and was never confirmed for a full-time return after a two-year absence that began in 2023. His recent run, a six-month programme around WrestleMania 42, had been billed internally as a possible final chapter. Sunday's boots-and-gloves moment suggests that chapter has now closed.
For Femi, the immediate question is programming. WWE creative has long had him earmarked for a Raw or SmackDown world-title feud, with speculation that a Cody Rhodes challenge will follow at SummerSlam. He will now head into the post-Mania Raw as the freshly made top heel of the promotion, a position that WWE has waited almost four years to hand to him.