Nattie Neidhart recently reflected on the emotions backstage ahead of Brock Lesnar’s final WWE match.
Lesnar officially announced his retirement following his loss to Oba Femi inside Hell in a Cell at WWE SummerSlam, confirming during a subsequent appearance on The Pat McAfee Show that his legendary in-ring career had come to an end.
During a recent appearance on Busted Open Radio, Nattie spoke about Lesnar’s retirement and noted that he, John Cena and AJ Styles all had the opportunity to step away from the ring on their own terms.
“I hate when people retire. Can I just say that?” Nattie said. “I was not happy about it when John Cena did it. I was not happy about it. I don’t like saying goodbye to people, and there’s no such thing as a goodbye to me. That’s always how I’ve been.”
“The great thing with AJ Styles, John Cena and with Brock Lesnar is that they did it on their terms. You look at the shape that Brock Lesnar was in. He was in, I think, the best shape of his life, and he’s 49 years old. I’m trying to think who else on the main roster looks like Brock. What Brock showed is, ‘Hey, you can be in peak physical condition, doing amazing, amazing work,’ and the power is being able to wrap this up on your own terms. There is so much power in that.”
Nattie contrasted those situations with what she has witnessed throughout her own wrestling family, where injuries and other circumstances often dictated when careers came to an end.
“I’ve seen so many wrestlers, including most of the wrestlers in my family, all of them who have had to retire,” she said. “It’s not because they made a conscious effort like, ‘Hey, it’s time for me to slow this down.’ It’s because an injury or a circumstance forced them to stop doing this.”
Nattie then recalled the atmosphere backstage at SummerSlam shortly before Lesnar went through the curtain for what ultimately became his final match.
“It was cool to see that Brock left on his own terms, but it was emotional in Gorilla before he went out,” she said.
“There’s never going to be anybody like him. He’s an anomaly.”
“Nobody does physicality the way that Brock does in the ring. When Brock comes in and cleans house, does a run-in or does a match, nobody is throwing people around the way that Brock does. He brings chaos. He’s everyone of a kind. You’re never going to find someone like him with his physicality ever again, in my opinion.”
