10 Funniest Wrestling Moments Of 2018

7. Bobby Lashley: Unlucky, You're A Family Guy

Bobby Lashley Is Terrifying
WWE Network

This wasn't funny ha-ha, not really. Bobby Lashley's performance in an ostensible, candid sit-down interview designed to put him over as a man of family values verged on the horrifying. Two layers of subtext here yielded laughter of a more wry variety:

1) In breezily telling tales of scrapping with his sisters, and showing off the scars, the implication was that Lashley had murdered all three in revenge before chopping them into tiny little pieces. His delivery was so uncanny it was as if Michael Haneke had directed him.

2) WWE deemed this the best possible means of getting Lashley over, with an audience 22 years removed from 1996, which wouldn't have worked even if Lashley hadn't unwittingly outed himself as a psychopath.

To sign off, Lashley promised that he and his new family, the "WWE Universe", were going to "have a lot of fun together". We didn't so much fear for Lashley's career prospects here as fear for our very lives. Fortunately, we weren't subjected to Lashley's twisted brand of fun. We didn't have any fun at all!

For years, many have petitioned WWE to bring back this sort of thing, which in 1997 humanised the Mankind character. This, closer to Mankind's vignettes, dehumanised Lashley as a serial killer.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!