When Brock Lesnar’s hulking frame stepped onto the ESPN “SportsCenter” set in Los Angeles, only three people knew what he was going to say. Jennifer Wenk wasn’t one of them.

The former UFC head of public relations was about to go to sleep 12 hours earlier when she got a call from Brian Stegeman, the guy who manages Lesnar’s career for real, while WWE barker Paul Heyman does it on TV.

“Brock’s made a decision,” Stegeman told Wenk. “So what are we going to do?”

At that point, the MMA and pro wrestling world was buzzing with rumors about Lesnar’s next move. The former heavyweight champ and pay-per-view goldmine was rumored to be considering a return to the UFC’s octagon, which he had left in 2011 after struggling to overcome the effects of a second bout with diverticulitis. UFC President Dana White played those up and rolled out the welcome mat at every opportunity. But there were also rumors that Lesnar’s run with the WWE wasn’t over just yet.

In short, no one but those closest to Lesnar knew what his plan was.

There was a reason Wenk’s phone had rung, though. As a former UFC PR rep, she had previously worked with Lesnar, back when he was viewed as a curiosity and was an oft-maligned figure in the MMA world, an insurgent who’d come from fake wrestling despite a legitimate amateur wrestling resume that included an NCAA Division  I national championship. It was a time when Wenk still needed to explain what the sport was to mainstream outlets who might have thought Lesnar was merely going from one fake show to another when he debuted at UFC 81, or they simply found it too barbaric for their tastes.

“Brock came in, and he was definitely a game-changer,” Wenk told MMAjunkie Radio.

But really, they just wanted a messenger who wouldn’t spoil the message.

Wenk and Stegeman discussed the options: a conference call, a press conference, or better yet, a spot on “SportsCenter.” Lesnar would be in L.A. until the next morning. She had a half-day to set it up.

“’It’s 12 hours,’” Wenk told him. “’You’re killing me.’”

But sure enough, Lesnar arrived in the studio that day, March 24, 2015, ready to tell the world what exactly was on his mind. Only, he wasn’t alone for long.

Wenk’s cell phone rang four hours before the interview. It was Lesnar.

“Dana White’s in the studio,” he said.

“What?” she said.

“Dana White’s in the studio at ‘SportsCenter,’” he persisted. “What’s he doing there?

“I don’t know,” a baffled Wenk replied. “You tell me what he’s doing there.”

“I’m thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, he’s going to go back to the UFC because Dana is there doing his part,’” she added. “So then, I get a call while I’m on the phone from Brock’s manager, and he says, Paul Heyman’s at ‘SportsCenter’ studios right now with Dana.”

Wait, what?

After another game of telephone, there was a little bit of a “standoff,” as Wenk put it. As in, figuring out if someone leaked the info, and if so, who leaked what. A few tense moments later, though, everyone calmed down and waited. And Googled.

“There were three people on the planet that knew what he was going to say – Brock, his manager, and one of the people at the organization he was going to go with,” Wenk said. “From 11 (a.m.) to 3 ( p.m.) to make his announcement, I was Googling every 30 seconds.”

Although she had no idea what he was going to say, Wenk wanted to help Lesnar say it without any interference. After all, she had been given a job to do, and whatever it was he was about to say, she could tell it was very important to the former fighter. Or soon-to-be fighter, for all she knew.

She didn’t know, as she would later, that the UFC offered Lesnar a whole boatload of money to return to the octagon. She didn’t know he had let them in on his decision. She had told ESPN that he wasn’t announcing to the world that he’d partnered with some fly-by-night dot.com for a quick payout. This was about the business of Brock Lesnar, and that was big news.

As the world now knows, the message that necessitated a PR routine worthy of a state secret was that he was not, in fact, going to fight again. Professional wrestling was where he would stay. The experiment that ended in glory so many years ago would remain just that, and he would continue in choreographed violence, but, he said, with a heavy heart.

“He really wanted to go on camera and look his fans and the sports community in the eye and explain how difficult this was for him,” Wenk said.

Lesnar said he lost sleep over his decision and went back and forth in his mind. For him, it was giving up something he truly loved in spite of a complicated relationship with the sport. Walking away was not an easy task. Making the announcement wasn’t either.

Just ask the PR rep.

For more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.

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