Lesnar continued to aggressively pursue the WWE Championship despite his friendship with Angle. Mr. McMahon became involved in the angle, at first berating Lesnar, who had involved himself in McMahon's rivalry with Zach Gowen, for losing to Angle. This all turned out to be a swerve that came into focus on the August 7 episode of "SmackDown!". That night, Lesnar and McMahon were to face each other in a steel cage match with Angle as the special guest referee as per McMahon's orders on the previous week's program. During the match, Lesnar had passed out due to a staged backstage incident and McMahon was set to pin him, but Angle refused to allow McMahon to win that way. As the two men began to argue, Lesnar attacked Angle with an "F-5" and kept attacking Angle while McMahon watched and celebrated with him afterwards, turning heel once again in the process. At SummerSlam on August 24, Lesnar lost to Angle after submitting to the ankle lock. On the September 18 episode of "SmackDown!", Lesnar defeated Angle in an Iron Man match to win his third WWE Championship by a final score of five to four, thus ending their long-standing feud.