Oba Femi Gave Up His World Title Shot and WWE's Reported Reasoning Makes Little Sense

Oba Femi should be facing the World Champion of his choosing at WWE SummerSlam next month, but for some head-scratching reason, he decided to forgo his golden ticket in order to face Brock Lesnar inside Hell in a Cell.

The Ruler was attacked by Lesnar during his King of the Ring coronation this past Monday night on WWE Raw, and without any goading on the part of The Beast whatsoever, Femi issued a challenge for The 'Biggest Party of the Summer'.

Raw General Manager Adam Pearce confirmed with Femi soon after that he was sure about what he was doing, with Oba proclaiming that he'll take the WWE or World Heavyweight Championship whenever he wants. Right now, however, he wants Brock Lesnar.

OBA VS BROCK. SUMMERSLAM. HELL IN A CELL.

OFFICIAL ✅

🎟️: https://t.co/NCo5yBBF5n pic.twitter.com/o7MaaMW0TX
— WWE (@WWE) June 29, 2026

A third bout between Femi and Lesnar was a guarantee from the very moment that Brock evened the score at Clash in Italy. Many assumed that SummerSlam would be the destination for that rubber match, with Lesnar having the home-field advantage inside Minneapolis' U.S. Bank Stadium.

That looked to be further in doubt with each passing round of the King of the Ring Tournament. Fans watched as Oba Femi continued to advance, and Brock never once emerged to screw him out of winning the crown.

Femi went on to defeat Jey Uso in the tournament finals at Night of Champions and earned his shot at either World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns or WWE Champion Sami Zayn. He selected door number three, and according to the Wrestling Observer's Dave Meltzer, that was always going to be his chosen path.

The reported plan was always for Oba Femi to give up his title opportunity

“The decision was always for Femi to win King of the Ring, but turn down his title shot at Reigns for a match with Lesnar. The idea was to create Reigns vs. Femi as the biggest match possible. I can’t say with certainty that means save it for WrestleMania," Meltzer wrote in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Holy plot holes, Batman!

First things first, assuming this report's accurate, WWE's idea of making Reigns versus Femi the biggest match possible by having Oba care more about a third match with Lesnar is incredibly confusing.

Secondly, WWE sets the rules here. It was just last year that the creative team established that the winner of The King and Queen of the Ring Tournaments received world title opportunities at SummerSlam. That was objectively a good decision, but here we are in year number two of that stipulation, and it already became some sort of obstacle that needed to be overcome.

One simple solution would have been to untie the championship opportunity from SummerSlam weekend. This would have allowed Oba to keep his title bout for a later date, instead of bypassing it outright. The WWE creative team could always retcon this later, but time will tell on that.

The bottom line is this: if Femi was never meant to challenge for a world championship in August, then he shouldn't have won the King of the Ring Tournament.

It would have made little sense to exclude him from the bracket, but a story where he was so enraged by his loss at Clash in Italy that he refused to face anyone else until he received his rematch against Lesnar would have been better than him just giving up the prize after emerging victorious.

That decision rendered the entire tournament pointless and cheapened both of the company's top men's championships in one fell swoop.

It would have made way more sense to have Seth Rollins defeat Bron Breakker in the King of the Ring finals, with The Visionary ultimately becoming the No. 1 Contender for Roman Reigns' World Heavyweight Championship. I doubt many people would have raised a stink had they kept the Rollins/Breakker inside a cage, either.

Thirdly, there was no storyline basis for Femi to issue his challenge to Lesnar at SummerSlam. He could have said this Monday night on WWE Raw in Chicago. He could have said inside Madison Square Garden on July 18 at Saturday Night's Main Event. He could have waited for an event that followed SummerSlam, after he presumably won the world title.

It's been rumored for months that Lesnar would be retiring at this year's SummerSlam, but that's never been confirmed. As of now, that's an arbitrary deadline for this rivalry to have its blow-off match.

Oba Femi challenges Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam! Brock accepts under one condition:

INSIDE HELL IN A CELL!!!! ⛓️‍💥

🎟️: https://t.co/NCo5yBBF5n pic.twitter.com/Xb2pBXSQOs
— WWE (@WWE) June 29, 2026

At the end of the day, however, WWE has its top two matches locked in for its second biggest show of the year. Roman Reigns will face Seth Rollins for the World Heavyweight Championship, and Oba Femi will battle Brock Lesnar inside Hell in a Cell, and it's hard to argue against those marquee matches.

More obstacles await the creative team on the other side of SummerSlam weekend. Will they attempt to wait until next year's WrestleMania to give Oba Femi his big match with Roman Reigns? If so, how do they keep him as hot as he is now until then? And what happens if TKO comes calling with another "plans change, pal" moment in February, March or April?

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