Cain Velasquez made his WWE debut last night on SmackDown, attacking Brock Lesnar after Lesnar’s WWE Championship squash win over Kofi Kingston.
According to Dave Meltzer, Velasquez will face Lesnar for the WWE Championship at Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia on October 31.
WWE offered a “huge money deal” for the match, Meltzer said, but it’s not known if the deal is for the one match or longer term.
After his surprise appearance on SmackDown, Velasquez claimed to ESPN’s Marc Raimondi that he has not officially signed a contract with WWE yet and he’s still talking to AEW and NJPW, though it’s very hard to believe that WWE would put him on TV in such a prominent position if they didn’t at least have a one match deal signed.
Velasquez has not officially put pen to paper with WWE, but they’re getting there. Him showing up tonight on #SmackDown came together in the last 24 hours or so. The UFC was aware he’d be doing this appearance and gave the OK.
— Marc Raimondi (@marc_raimondi) October 5, 2019
Despite still being signed with the UFC, Velasquez told ESPN that his focus is now on wrestling. MMA Junkie also says that Velasquez intends to withdraw from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) testing pool, which would signal his retirement from MMA fighting.
Velasquez won the UFC Heavyweight Championship from Brock Lesnar via first round TKO at UFC 121 on October 23, 2010.