In an exclusive for WrestlingNews.co, Steve Fall interviewed former WWE Champion Bobby Lashley. Lashley talked about how he takes care of his health to stay ageless, the strangest place he’s wrestled, not wrestling at WrestleMania 39 and how he felt about that, CM Punk, Tribute to the Troops, and more. Some of the highlights are below. Scroll down to watch the entire interview. Note: Tribute to the Troops will air as a special episode of SmackDown this Friday at 8 pm Eastern on FOX.
Lashley on WrestleMania 37 and his match being delayed by rain:
“Well, I tell you what, for us, it didn’t matter. There was no getting up and getting back down. WrestleMania, I was always up…Me and Drew were about to fight backstage.. If it would have started raining, we [would have] had to just start fighting our way out to the ring and just kept fighting then. And that’s what I liked about him. Drew is that guy, and I was already that guy. You know, I’ve always been that guy. So it was a little crazy. But at the same time, it made it special with the pandemic before and everything else. It was like there was no way that that was going to just go out perfect. It was like sunny for the entire summer. Ready for Wrestlemania. Boom, there we go. It was crazy.”
On not wrestling at WrestleMania 39:
“I was beyond disappointed. I’m not gonna say pessimistic disappointed, because I am a kind of chill person. And the thing that disappoints me the most is all the work that I put in, you know. We have live events throughout the year. I’m on all of them. Every one of the pay-per-views. We had some mix ups and change ups. And then next, you know, I’m pulled off the biggest show. It sucked to me, because I have my kids and leading up to it they were like, ‘Dad are we going to Wrestlemania?’ And I was like, ‘Look, yeah, if you guys want to go, I just don’t know if I’m gonna be do anything there. And all the while I was like, ‘There’s no way that’s gonna be. I have to be in WrestleMania. I’ve been in every WrestleMania in my entire career with the WWE, I’ve always been a spotlight match. I have been in every pay-per-view, everything. Then we get closer and closer. And then even the first day, the first day my kids called me up that night. And they’re like, ‘Hey Dad, are you going to be on?’ Because I would have just flew them right in if I was going to be out. They had some stuff going on. And then the next day comes around, and then I saw all kinds of mix-ups. You know, just random people jumping in there. To me, it was probably one of the lowest points of my career. And I think right now I kind of want to make a change. I kind of took more of a heel approach there for a while afterwards, because I needed some redemption for that. And I wanted to take out some of these guys. I left the company for a little while, never said anything bad about the company. I never tried to put down the company. I came back after doing some independents and just getting some different work rates [and] working with some different people. Success in other companies and coming back and the things that I had to go through in order to get back to that chance of winning a world title…we’re still moving forward. I have a great opportunity now, which I’m trying to focus my attention on. And I’d like another world title run. I’m in great shape, I will work my ass off. I’m building a team. I work with other people having good matches when I have an opportunity to have matches. But um, I think that I should and could have another good title run.”
This interview is exclusive to WrestlingNews.co. If you use these quotes, please include a link back to this page.
