In many ways, WWEs loss of Bobby Lashley was really a failed effort to have Brock Lesnar back. After all, both men are similar sizes, with similar amateur wrestling backgrounds. When Bobby Lashley began training to be a professional wrestler only nine or ten months after Lesnars final match with the company, signing with WWEs developmental territory OVW, Vince McMahon must have thought he had a second stab at creating the Next Big Thing. After only ten months training, Lashley debuted on WWE television as a babyface in September 2005, creaming midcard fitness guru Simon Dean. Just as Lesnar had, Lashley swiftly scaled the WWE ladder, feuding with John Bradshaw Layfield, Finlay and King Booker, winning the WWE version of the ECW Championship (although thats no great shakes, given that Matt Hardy also won the bloody thing). Sidelined due to injury in late 2007, it was clear to everyone that when Lashley returned, he was going straight to the top. And then, just like that, he asked for his release. No ones ever been able to properly pin him or anyone in WWE down as to specifically what happened, but scuttlebutt (like gossip with a rebel flag in the front garden) is that one of the senior staff responsible for organising his return hadnt done anything about itthe same guy whod called him Black Lesnar behind his back, and whod made other racist comments about African American performers on the roster in the past. Lashley asked for his release and went on to have a significant run in TNA in 2009-2010 and 2014-2015, showing people who he could have been on a much larger scale in WWE, and what a loss hed been. Meanwhile, WWE were left to pick up the pieces. Vince had once again decided that no one performer could be bigger than the company and he wouldnt ever let a wrestler hold the WWE hostage again, even if that meant letting a sure moneymaker go to defend a racist old has-been.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
