10 WWE Superstars Who Got Too Much Too Soon
3. Bobby Lashley
This entry is fairly similar to the last one.
In 2022, Bobby Lashley is over like rover as a babyface, because the fans buy into his hard as nails, super athlete character. He lets his in-ring power do most of his talking, and he has built up credibility with the fans as a ruthless badass who isn’t to be messed with.
The same thing didn’t apply to Lashley's first run in the company. When he burst onto the scene in 2005, he was just another jacked guy in a pair of black trunks. He had little personality beyond being a freak within the ring, where his impressive power generated pops but little other interest. It was obvious, based on how WWE kept regurgitating his amateur and college background, that he was their replacement for Brock Lesnar.
But Lashley lacked the same aura as ‘The Next Big Thing’, and soon, the fans grew bored of a stale act that had little going for it beyond ‘I’m a strong guy.’ But that didn’t stop WWE pushing Lashley to a prominent position, giving him the ECW World Title and WWE United States Championship, as well as a prominent spot alongside future president Donald Trump at WrestleMania.
When Lashley left WWE, he didn’t leave a hole in the company, which showed how little he had connected despite everything that was given to him. Now, as one of the centrepieces of Monday Night RAW, the All Mighty is finally getting the run he has earned.