10 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About Bobby Lashley
7. His Original Main Roster Career Arc...
Bobby Lashley once occupied the role played by Roman Reigns in 2018: über-pushed babyface fans literally couldn't bond with, because his visage had already been grafted directly onto their eyeballs.
Lashley was a sentient template of McMahon's platonic ideal. Muscles where there is usually thin air, chiselled looks, more muscles where there is usually thin air, the verbiage of that promo was little wonder: the man was a big b*stard, and McMahon was typically impetuous in his promotion of him.
Betraying the tenets of fiction, as McMahon so often did and does, Lashley's onscreen obstacles were mere telegraphed, mandatory story beats as opposed to genuine narrative hooks. Lashley Reigned supreme as ECW World Champion, was the first and only man to conquer Chris Masters' Masterlock Challenge, and was selected to play the role of Stone Cold Steve Austin in a programme opposite the malevolent Mr. McMahon character designed to get him over to that level. It didn't matter that Lashley was everything Austin wasn't - soft-spoken, entitled to opportunities, generally well-behaved - McMahon wanted him over yesterday.
Much like the Roman Empire, this push masquerading as an arc did not resonate with fans, who were only spared a relentless marketing overdrive because Lashley left.