At SummerSlam, Oba Femi gave WWE its clearest answer to its biggest question

We heard the great man say it himself last night: “This is the future.” That was the graceful encore from Brock Lesnar to cap off WWE SummerSlam Night 1, as the future Hall of Famer lifted the arm of Oba Femi — the man who had just brutalized Lesnar in a Hell in a Cell match — to signal the passing of the torch.

Let’s face it: Femi winning that match was a sure thing. What we didn’t know, though, was that WWE would elevate the showdown to be Saturday’s main event, bumping champion CM Punk and Cody Rhodes down a spot to do so. We also didn’t know it would end with Lesnar embracing Femi, hailing him as the next great thing in professional wrestling.

The emotional payoff was the perfect ending to the whole Lesnar-Femi trilogy that has been going on since WrestleMania. Though it also leaves an unspoken question: Will Lesnar’s prediction about “the future” now come true?

In terms of Femi himself, it seems a safe bet. Every single move WWE has made this year regarding the 28-year-old rookie has confirmed just how much it sees in him. From the fact that his first main-roster match was against Rhodes — then still the Undisputed WWE Champion — to his dominant run in this year’s Royal Rumble, it’s been obvious the promotion’s leadership regard Femi as a generational talent.

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Brock Lesnar raises Oba Femi’s hand after their SummerSlam match in Minneapolis.

With Lesnar now vanquished, Femi’s path should be obvious. “The Ruler” needs a couple of decent feuds to finish out the year — names like Drew McIntyre and Seth Rollins spring to mind — and keep him on the PLE cards, before he inevitably wins the Royal Rumble come January. That allows WWE to make Oba Femi the main face of WrestleMania 43 in Saudi Arabia, an event that is going to need all the good PR it can get.

It should go without saying that Femi needs to win that belt in Riyadh. After the decision to defer his King of the Ring world title shot, there should be absolutely no hesitancy next time around. And it should feel like a massive deal when it happens. How about Femi crushing Roman Reigns, perhaps the most dominant WWE champion of the decade?

But now we return back to that unspoken question: Femi’s future looks rosy enough, but without help, none of it matters. Does the company have what it takes to follow through and ensure Femi isn’t the only marquee name on the poster come the turn of the decade?

On that front, the jury is still out. We’ve all heard of the stats: the fact that no wrestler born in the 1990s — or 2000s, for that matter — has become a WWE world champion. Indeed, of the four men who compete in world title matches at SummerSlam this weekend, not one of them is under 40. The oldest, CM Punk, is just a smidgen younger than Brock Lesnar, a man who just openly referred to himself as “the past.”

It isn’t like Rhodes, Reigns, Punk and Rollins are having any problems filling stadiums, but WWE hasn’t exactly delivered when it comes to building up the names who will eventually take their places when the current world champions hang up their boots. If anything, the promotion has shown a frustrating reticence to create new champions. Look at the way creative cooled off on Bron Breakker this year. Once upon a time, it was practically obligatory to refer to him as a “future WrestleMania main-eventer.” Since the first “Raw” of January, he’s gone from being a world title contender to playing enforcer with Austin Theory and Logan Paul in the unluckiest faction in pro-wrestling.

Dominik Mysterio is another one. Coming out of WrestleMania last year, Dirty Dom looked to be on the verge of becoming one of the biggest stars in the company — an insane turnaround for a man who was once unfairly dismissed as a hopeless nepo-baby. Now he’s doing most of his wrestling in AAA while being stuck doing comedy angles on “Raw.”

WWE has done a better job with Trick Williams, the 32-year-old former NXT champion who has been consistently pushed since getting the big call-up in January. Sure, Williams may have only won one of the secondary titles — the U.S. title on “SmackDown” — but he’s gotten the chance to defend it at two massive stadium shows. Not everyone would get those opportunities, and Williams has grabbed them with both hands.

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Trick Williams (right) and Oba Femi are big parts of the future of WWE.

Those are the kinds of names that should be alongside Oba Femi when it comes to the world titles at WrestleMania 45 or 46. But we’ll see whether WWE has the guts and determination to really make them into stars, because there isn’t exactly much space in the world title picture right now. On “SmackDown,” Punk already has at least four rivals (Rhodes, Gunther, Finn Balor and Sami Zayn) who have their eyes on his belt. Things are less crowded on “Raw,” where Reigns will likely soon be on the lookout for new challengers. That’s a speedy path to relevancy (pardon the pun) for any up-and-comer.

(It’d also help if concepts like Money in the Bank and King of the Ring were used again to create new stars, rather than just storyline opportunities for existing main-eventers. The decision to give McIntyre the MITB briefcase in 2024 — only for him to lose it on the same night — was a classic example of the latter. It added nothing to the Punk-McIntyre feud, and took an opportunity away from guys who could have done a lot more with it.)

Still, for a few glorious few minutes last night, none of that mattered. With the Femi-Lesnar trilogy wrapped up, we were left to admire the prowess of the man who will surely close many more PLEs to come.

Triple H knows it, Brock Lesnar knows it, Ari Emanuel knows it: Oba Femi will play a massive role in the future of WWE, likely well into the 2030s. The question between now and then, though, is who is going to be joining him.