12 Things You Learn Binge Watching Every WWE Raw From 2007
2. Bumping Into Cena Was A Disaster For Bobby Lashley
AVOID AT ALL COSTS!
That's what someone should've placed on John Cena's locker room door in 2007. Specifically, this should've been aimed at Bobby Lashley. He'd been getting some push during the first half of the year - Bobby won at WrestleMania 23, feuded with Vince McMahon over the ECW Title (that wasn’t great but was guaranteed plenty of screentime because Vince was involved), then jumped to Raw in the Draft. That’s when things hit the skids.
Lashley was booked as Cena’s WWE Title rival, and lost to him at the Great American Bash. During that match, his shoulder issues that had started at Backlash worsened, and he had to take 6 months off. Nobody could quite believe it when news did the rounds that Bob had been released in February 2008 before returning to action.
Basically, the point being made here is that running into Cena was the worst thing that could’ve happened to big Lashley. This guy isn't blaming John for hurting Bobby at the Bash, or anything, but WWE's creative team were never going to treat both equally or give Lashley a fair shake against the poster boy.
Cena was their guy, so no-one else stood a bloody chance of rocking that boat. The long and short of this is that Bob didn’t work in WWE again until 2018 after departing in '08. Would things have been different for him without that Cena match? Maybe he'd have needed surgery anyway due to the niggling shoulder issue, but there's no doubt that coming to JC's turf was bad news for Lashley.
Not the fun kind of Wade Barrett bad news either.