Brock Lesnar Pulled From WWE WrestleMania Backlash Advertising

Brock Lesnar has not appeared on WWE television since dropping the WWE Championship to Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 38 earlier this month. When the company initially announced its next pay-per-view, WrestleMania Backlash, for May 8 in Providence, Rhode Island, "The Beast" was advertised to compete on the show. However, WWE.com has since pulled any mention of Lesnar from the event. The current card for the show has three matches confirmed — Charlotte Flair vs. Ronda Rousey in an I Quit Match for the SmackDown Women's Championship, Cody Rhodes vs. Seth Rollins in a rematch from WrestleMania and a Raw Women's Championship match between Bianca Belair and Sonya Deville. 

Since returning at SummerSlam last August, Lesnar has reinvented himself as a jovial babyface much to the delight of many fans. He has since explained in interviews that the person on TV now is the "real" him. 

"This is the real Brock Lesnar," he told the New York Post last month. "I'm a country hillbilly f—, and that's who I'm am. I grew up the same way.' I can be a funny f—er. I can be serious. I can be bipolar and change my persona on a flick of a switch, just ask my kids. I can change on a dime. I can be joking with you and then rip your f—ing head off the next second. It's just the way I am."

Paul Heyman, who briefly reunited with Lesnar earlier this year, praised his reinvention in an interview with The Ringer back in January. He said, "In terms of Brock, Brock just never felt like talking. Brock Lesnar does what Brock Lesnar wants to do and Brock Lesnar doesn't do what Brock Lesnar doesn't want to do. When Brock came back, he had been gone long enough and looked different enough and is really comfortable enough with himself now that he just says, 'Screw it. This is who I am and they'll like me for who I am or they won't. I'm just going to give them the real Brock Lesnar,' which is a far more smart-ass Brock Lesnar than most people were even prepared to see. But if you watched him in the UFC press conferences, this is Brock Lesnar. This is who he is. So, again, in an age where authenticity is a very big selling point with the audience, it's just getting both of them to be authentic."