Update on the situation with Brock Lesnar prior to his WWE Smackdown appearance

As previously noted, Brock Lesnar reportedly left the building prior to the July 22nd edition of Smackdown once news broke that Vince McMahon was retiring from WWE but ended up appearing on the show after all.

According to Fightful Select, the script for Smackdown was re-written to not include Lesnar at all. While the rundown did not feature Lesnar, the last segment was designed to include Lesnar if he returned to the building. The site noted the following…

“We’re told that things blew over, and Lesnar returned. One source called the situation ‘overblown’ but admitted they didn’t know if he’d end up actually being on the show.”

During Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer of F4WOnline.com commented on the timeline of Lesnar returning…

“It was definitely interesting, I know he was back in the building by 8:30pm as far as the timeline goes. It wasn’t that he was hidden away, it wasn’t like he came back like (MJF at Double or Nothing) where you do the work and nobody knows you’re back.”

“It wasn’t like it was supposed to be some guarded secret… I mean I shouldn’t say (it wasn’t a guarded secret) because it probably was supposed to be a secret, but he didn’t show up at 9:45 to go out there at 9:50 put it that way.” (quotes courtesy of WrestleTalk.com)