10 Quick Fixes For WWE In 2019
7. Rethink Bobby Lashley
Is WWE almost there with Bobby Lashley?
Lashley re-debuted as your classic All-American, family values archetype. In theory; in execution, in adding an unsettling undercurrent to this 1950s-leaning stuff, WWE went full David Lynch. By accident. Now, as a shades-wearing Narcissist update with an annoying f*cking twerp of a hype man, Lashley is close to becoming the Superstar he looks like. The issue is that WWE has thus far only travelled three decades forward in time; his offence, all WBF flex and basic power moves, isn't too dissimilar to a 1980s muscle monster.
Lashley starred in Impact Wrestling as a shooter. He transposed his MMA game to the squared circle, and was presented and received as a serious combat athlete. Either WWE's prehistoric playbook or Brock Lesnar's unique aura has put paid to a continuation of this in WWE, but then, it's not as if Lesnar does much of this in WWE these days. By presenting Lashley as a formidable proposition with a unique (and credible) amateur/submission-leaning repertoire, WWE could differentiate Lashley from the interminable stylings of Baron Corbin.
Rest holds are the preserve of the limited, used nowadays as a sort of meta gesture to piss of an audience predisposed to enjoying good wrestling - but there is such a thing as an entertaining elite competitor of a heel.
Such a thing exists, and funnily enough, his name is Bobby Lashley too.