Triple H breaks silence on Brock Lesnar's shocking return to WWE after 'TKO ban list' claim

Triple H has addressed Brock Lesnar's return to WWE at SummerSlam after a two-year absence.

Lesnar, 48, appeared after the conclusion of the main event between John Cena and Cody Rhodes, which Rhodes won to reclaim the WWE Universal Championship.

He entered the ring and hit Cena with his F-5 finishing move before promptly making an exit.

It was the first time Lesnar has stepped foot inside a WWE ring since SummerSlam 2023, when he was defeated by Rhodes in a singles match.

According to Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp, 'The Beast Incarnate' was due to make an appearance at the 2024 Royal Rumble, but was pulled from the event.

At the time, Lesnar had been implicated, and would later be named, in Janel Grant's sex trafficking lawsuit against Vince McMahon and WWE. He is not a defendant in the case.

The former 10-time world champion had not appeared in WWE since then, and had been rarely mentioned by the company, until his shocking return on Sunday night.

It was only last month that UFC icon Daniel Cormier, appearing on the 'Mighty' podcast, claimed that Lesnar was on the 'ban list' of TKO, WWE's parent company. TKO did not respond to a request for comment.

Perhaps notably, the 48-year-old has remained as an active member of the roster on the WWE website throughout his absence.

And Paul 'Triple H' Levesque, the company's chief content officer, previously refused to state that Lesnar had been blacklisted.

He told the Daily Mail in August 2024: "If and when he decides that he would like to do something, we'd be open to the conversation."

Shortly before SummerSlam night two got underway, WWE announced that they would no longer be hosting press conferences after premium live events.

Typically, winning wrestlers would make short appearances to answer questions from the press, before Levesque held a longer briefing to close out the conference.

That has been replaced by a post-show, which sees members of a panel host an analysis of the event, while occasionally being joined by Superstars.

Triple H also made an appearance after night two, where he addressed Lesnar's comeback to WWE for the first time.

What Triple H said about Brock Lesnar

Before the start of his segment, fans in attendance chanted 'We want Kross' - aimed towards WWE's usage of popular wrestler Karrion Kross.

Triple H, however, misheard the chants as being for Lesnar, and shouted back: "You want Brock? You've got him."

"My reaction was exactly what I thought it was gonna be, which was, if there had been a roof on this place, it wouldn't be here anymore," he continued.

"The dynamic in the room in WWE changes when The Beast is here.

"Seeing Brock Lesnar come back, anything that you thought was happening sort of all goes out the window because the factor of Brock now just changes that dynamic so incredibly. It makes it unpredictable."

On Lesnar's seemingly upcoming programme with Cena, Triple H added: "One of the first things I said to him [Cena, before his retirement tour] is, 'Who do you want, and how?' And we're working through that."