Bobby Lashley was seen as a top prospect during his first run with WWE as he was pushed as the face of WWE ECW as the ECW Champion and feuded with Vince McMahon that saw him be part of the WrestleMania 23 match with Umaga where he had Donald Trump in his corner while Umaga was representing McMahon.
Lashley left WWE in 2008 and pursued an MMA career finding in Strikeforce and Bellator MMA while also wrestling in TNA/Impact Wrestling.
While doing a quick interview with RainmakerNYC, Lashley spoke about his departure and confirmed that he didn’t leave the company because of a money issue. Instead, he left for outside opportunities.
“No, that’s 100 percent not true. I was making a tremendous amount of money then. It was an opportunity for me to go fight and legitimize my character a little bit. I fought for eight years under [Scott] Coker and Bellator and Strikeforce and everything else. Now coming back, I take all that with me to kinda legitimize my character a little bit.”
Since returning to the company, Lashley has been booked strongly as a multiple WWE Champion and United States Champion. Lashley will wrestle Brock Lesnar at the Crown Jewel event in Saudi Arabia on November 5.
You can watch the entire interview by clicking on the player below:
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit RainmakerNYC with an h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
