Was Brock Lesnar's WWE WrestleMania 42 Ending a Sendoff or a Setup?

At this point, WWE can't really go wrong on the subject of Brock Lesnar. 

Lesnar appeared to retire in the ring at WrestleMania after his loss to Oba Femi. And if that's really how he's calling it a career? It will be hard for fans not to love how it all went down. 

And if Lesnar isn't done and comes back for one more match at a hometown Minnesota SummerSlam soon to take the theroized loss to Gunther? Fans would love that too. 

Call it a benefit of the blurred-lines era. If Lesnar called his own shot and retired at 'Mania and fans never see him again, he benefits greatly from putting over Femi in the best way possible while seeming to go out on his own terms before a TKO or somebody can come meddle with his retirement "tour."

It certainly feels like that's what happened, too. Lesnar broke down in tears while leaving his boots in the ring and even did the "X" to denote it was a real thing. WWE announcers have been very careful not to call it a retirement in the moment and since. 

But it felt real, in part, because the WWE/TKO machine never promoted it as a retirement match. A 'Mania that was struggling to sell tickets and grasping at terrible straws like Pat McAfee and Jelly Roll involved in a 'Mania main event wouldn't benefit from promoting Lesnar's last match? Please. 

Maybe, just maybe, Lesnar saw how the machine handled the retirements of John Cena and AJ Styles and no thanks'd his way out of there. Even the idea earns him some goodwill with fans. 

But hey, it feels like a stretch, but maybe this is all part of the plan. As fans have theorized endlessly on the internet already, perhaps Gunther calls in the small "favor" that Paul Heyman owes him. 

In storyline, that could lead to Gunther pestering Heyman for months before getting violent, coaxing Lesnar out of his "retirement" for one final match. That would be a strong way to fill the gaps between now and SummerSlam. 

Whether fans want to see Gunther "retire" another legend is hard to say. Whether he needs it is just as debatable at this point. 

Gunther's erratic booking since retiring legends of the sport doesn't help here. He might not benefit the same as Femi did by winning a retirement match it's super obvious he's going to win. 

With Femi, fans have him down pat as the next big thing. An '02 Lesnar, even. The 'Mania bump was huge. Gunther, by comparison, is already established. He's the guy who retired Cena. He's yet to win a big title and really give that rub to someone else. Will tacking on a Lesnar retirement change all that much?

One could argue that Femi being the guy to retire Lesnar is an important thing for him to carry. He should, on paper, play into it in promos. There's a certain aura around him being such a force of nature that he forced Lesnar into an impromptu retirement that WWE didn't even see coming. 

All of that aside, if Lesnar isn't done and wants a proper farewell with a buildup to SummerSlam, there aren't a ton of current alternatives when it comes to opponents. Bron Breakker could be one. Maybe they finally throw LA Knight something big?

If they need to go this way, Gunther might be the best of the bunch, even if his booking around the retirement matches has been so underwhelming. Perhaps this is the way to change all that for good. Lesnar going out a loser to Femi and Gunther would generate its own sort of legacy goodwill, too.

Good luck figuring out if the 'Mania moment was a setup or goodbye. And just how WWE wants it: The intrigue drives interest. If it were one or the other, fans might not ever really know, either, because the promotion is good at going the revisionist history route. 

The general tone of most WWE fans on this topic, it seems, is a hat-tip salute to Lesnar for putting that moment together for Oba, just as Femi himself did while leaving the ring that night. But if he's coming back for one more goodbye, that's cool too. 

Sendoff or setup, Lesnar's likely last 'Mania moment will register as one of his best-ever, which is both saying something and a testament to the blurred-lines era that understands the real-world implications of what unfolded in that brief bout of violence between two giants.