When asked why he thought White had no interest in bringing him to UFC despite his established fame, Lesnar reasoned that he had no legitimacy in the fight game.

“I had no credibility, and I don’t blame him. I was an amateur wrestler and a fake entertainer. So he didn’t care. I fought a tomato can in my first fight. I beat him in 90 seconds and I didn’t prove myself yet. So he threw me to the wolves. My first fight is against Frank… He almost broke my leg in half… So it was just one of those things where I had to prove myself to him.”

When all was said and done, Lesnar said he did “quite well” financially as a result of the deal, even if he didn’t know the specifics of his pay scale compared to money drawn. He was also asked what he found to be his fondest accolade: the NCAA National Wrestling Championship or UFC Heavyweight Championship.

“I think my most prestigious award for me is my National Championship in college,” he said. “Because to be that young kid and to be raw, and to carry that dream and to finally win at a discipline you’ve been trying to master for 17 years. That’s probably my biggest accolade I can hang my hat on.”

Lesnar admitted that Randy Couture was aging when he dethroned him for the UFC title. “He was on his way out. Dana was trying to get rid of Randy because they didn’t see eye to eye in the pay scale and all these other things. So I think Dana was really hoping I was going to beat him, and he was very ecstatic about it at the time.”

Chris Jericho has often been praised for how he’s able to reinvent himself over and over, and, for better or worse, he’s been either completely behind or heavily involved in the creative for these runs. In an interview with “GamesHub,” Jericho instead looked back at a time when a creative pitch he made never came into fruition.

“I had one really great idea for Vince [McMahon] that I still think about,” he recalled, adding that he simply believes his timing was off, especially since Triple H was in the room with Vince McMahon. “On top of that, he hadn’t eaten yet, and when Vince is eating, he’s not paying attention to anything else.”

Jericho went on to explain that the story he had involved included Shawn Michaels and the late Bray Wyatt, who, at the time, still had the Wyatt Family stable. 

“The premise was that the Wyatt Family would attack me, and the only person I could call who was crazy enough to have my back was Shawn,” he recounted. “He comes back to confront me, and just as we’re about to go at it, the Wyatt Family attacks us both.”

The veteran further explained that his history with Michaels, stemming from their WrestleMania XIX feud, would make their newfound alliance shaky. 

“But Vince just sat there eating his steak, and when I finished, he said, ‘Bad cow.’ I said, ‘What?’ He goes, ‘Bad cow. The steak is tough.’ I said, ‘What do you think of my pitch?'” Jericho recalled. “He goes, ‘What else you got?’ The steak killed the whole angle.” 

Brock Lesnar talked about his early MMA career, fighting with K1 Kickboxing, and learning to be a heel in UFC to avoid media obligations. 

Lesnar left WWE in 2004 and after being the final cut of the Minnesota Vikings’ roster in the 2004/05 pre-season, returned to wrestling with NJPW in 2005. And as he would recall during “Spittin’ Chiclets,” was spotted by K1 for what would be his first fight against Kim Min-Soo in 2007. 

He explained that he didn’t expect things to turn out how they did. 

“I knew that if I was going to stay on the pain train, I just wanted something else. I wanted to see what was out there,” he said. “I had no idea I was gonna blow up and become UFC Champion. That was a goal. But for me to have my third fight against Randy Couture of all the guys. I could have shelled up and been scared about it. That’s how confident I was. You’ve got to have an alter-ego, you’ve gotta have something inside you that makes you believe in order to achieve.”

He also made note of something he found out sooner rather than later, “I discovered real early if I play a heel in the UFC, I don’t have to do all the media and stuff. I could just tell people whatever. People see the entertainment Brock Lesnar and they think that’s who I am. But it’s not who I am, and I don’t let people into my circle enough to know. It’s been a mystique for a long time. But I can be an a**hole when I want to be.”

Lesnar went on to become UFC Heavyweight Champion in just his third fight, going into his first title defense with a record of 2-1, against the man who had beaten him in his first fight: Frank Mir. Lesnar won that fight and another against Shane Carwin before losses to Cain Velasquez and Alistair Overeem, the latter after he had been sidelined with diverticulitis. 

Following his return to the ring after neck surgery on “AEW Dynamite,” AEW star Will Ospreay’s NJPW return has been announced, and he’ll be reuniting with two members of the United Empire at Ryogoku Kokugikan.

NJPW announced via X (formerly Twitter) on Friday that the “Aerial Assassin” will return at Sakura Genesis in an all-star six man tag team match. Ospreay will team with United Empire co-founder Great-O-Khan and HENARE against Yuya Uemura, Taichi, and El Desperado. Ospreay confirmed the news in a post to his own X account. He posted in Japanese, which was translated via the app.

“The original members of United Empire have reunited for the first time in two years,” Ospreay wrote. “Please cheer me on as I return to my favorite arena in the world of pro wrestling, and above all, to my hometown. Thank you.”

Ospreay will make his return to the NJPW ring for the first time since New Beginning in Osaka in 2024. He previously addressed new United Empire leader Callum Newman at New Year Dash in January, where Ospreay said when he returned, he would follow Newman’s orders. At the time, Ospreay said when he returned to NJPW, it wouldn’t just be a one-off thing.

“The Aerial Assassin” left NJPW in 2024 when he began working full-time for AEW. Ospreay made his return to the company following neck surgery at Revolution, and wrestled his first match since being taken out at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door on “Dynamite” against Blake Christian on March 18. He has his sights set on Jon Moxley and the Death Riders, however, after the faction took him out at Forbidden Door, and will officially face Moxley at Dynasty in April.

“WWE NXT” is quickly approaching its next major premium live event, Stand & Deliver, on April 4 in St. Louis, and the March 24 episode from the WWE Performance Center in Orlando only saw a slight decrease in viewership from the previous week. The episode saw matches confirmed for “NXT’s” biggest night, including the bout for the NXT Championship.

According to Wrestlenomics, with data from Programming Insider, the March 24 edition of “NXT” drew 581,000 viewers, down just one percent from the previous week’s 588,000 viewers. The show earned a 0.08 in the ever-important ages 18-49 demographic, which was up 14 percent from the previous week’s 0.07 rating.

The episode saw no change compared to the trailing four weeks average viewership of 580,000. Compared to this time last year, in March 2025, “NXT” was down 19 percent, from the average 712,000 viewers. The rating was down a whopping 47 percent compared to last year’s average of 0.15.

The show saw Zaria and Sol Ruca make their presumably feud-ending match official for Stand & Deliver in an emotional in-ring segment. Elsewhere on the episode, a number one contender’s match for Jacy Jayne’s NXT Women’s Championship was made between Lola Vice and Kendal Grey for next week’s show. “WWE SmackDown” star Johnny Gargano became the number one contender for Myles Borne’s North American Championship when he was revealed to be the surprise entrant in the eliminator gauntlet match, and NXT Champion Joe Hendry’s next defense was also made official for Stand & Deliver. He’ll be facing Ethan Page, Tony D’Angelo, and Ricky Saints in a triple threat match.