Jim Ross Weighs In On Oba Femi’s SummerSlam Test Against Lesnar

Jim Ross isn’t ready to crown Oba Femi as WWE’s next big thing just yet — but he’s not ruling it out either.

Speaking on the latest episode of his Grilling JR podcast, the Hall of Fame commentator broke down the massive opportunity in front of Femi, who steps into a Hell in a Cell match against Brock Lesnar on Night One of SummerSlam at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. Ross praised Femi’s look and reputation but said it’s too soon to project where the NXT North American Champion’s career is headed.

“I think he’s got great potential, but I think it’s too early in his progress to define where we think he might go,” Ross said. “He looks incredible. I never met him, but I hear he’s a decent guy. If he listens well this weekend, he’ll come out okay.”

Ross made clear that regardless of the finish, simply being in the ring with Lesnar on a pay-per-view stage is a career-altering opportunity for Femi. “It’s a great opportunity for him,” Ross said. “Hope he understands that to turn heads, simply working with Brock Lesnar on a pay-per-view is a big deal.”

True to his old-school scouting instincts, Ross said he’d want to sit down with Femi personally before offering any real prediction about his long-term trajectory. “I couldn’t give you a definitive answer until I would have an eye to eye chat with Oba,” he explained. “What kind of guy is he? Is he intimidated easily or not? There’s a lot of ifs and a lot of things that haven’t been established that we need to wait on to see.” Still, Ross left the door wide open for a big future. “If we’re going on look and going on what we perceive as a good attitude from a young talented guy, he’s got a chance to be special.”

Ross also flagged an intriguing wrinkle for the Minneapolis crowd: Lesnar’s deep ties to the city, where he won the NCAA heavyweight wrestling championship for the University of Minnesota in 2000. Ross wondered aloud whether the building will lean pro-Lesnar given his roots, potentially putting Femi in hostile territory from the moment he’s introduced. “We’ve not made much of the fact that, you know, will Lesnar have a home field advantage?” Ross said. “I don’t know. We’ll find out. We’ll find out soon, and as early as the introductions.”

For WWE, this match is as much about Femi’s credibility as it is about spectacle. Since arriving on the main roster scene, Femi has been positioned as NXT’s most dominant physical presence, and a showing against a legend like Lesnar — inside a structure as unforgiving as Hell in a Cell — is the kind of test that can either validate a push or expose the gaps Ross is describing. The Minneapolis factor adds another layer: a hometown ovation for Lesnar could make Femi’s task even steeper, turning a already tough in-ring assignment into a battle for the crowd as well.

How Femi responds under that pressure, both physically and in the eyes of a notoriously hard-to-please veteran like Ross, could shape how WWE books him for the remainder of the year.