Every 'Next Big Thing' In Wrestling History: Where Are They Now?
11. Bobby Lashley
Bobby Lashley was a preposterous physical specimen. Muscles on top of muscles in the places where muscles ordinarily do not exist.
And then he spoke.
Beyond his less-than-menacing tone of voice, Lashley while clearly a stellar athlete lacked the same terrifying intensity of Brock Lesnar, as a regen of whom he was always going to draw comparisons with.
Lashley was given the Austin Vs. McMahon retread treatment in 2007, which despite its inherent laziness was actually WWE’s way of telling you that Bobby was the Next Big Thing. Until 2012, Lashley, as the chosen fighter of Donald Trump, was a key player in the biggest money match in pro wrestling history.
In another parallel with Brock, Lashley was also done within two years. Lashley wrote the following on his website at the time:
“Circumstances which are out of my control left me no decision but to leave the WWE. I can’t go into details of this now but like I said before sometimes people will hate you personally and try to destroy you which has happened here.”
…which doesn’t track with the reason given, long after he’d returned, in 2022 to RainmakerNYC: “It was an opportunity for me to go and fight and legitimise my character a little bit.”
B*llocks or not, he took that opportunity: eventually, across Impact Wrestling, Strike Force and Bellator, Lashley was reinvigorated as a credible hard-man with a much more composed demeanour under the bright lights. After a rancid start, he folded that experience into a great run across 2021.
Lashley in 2024 is not doing much of anything and indeed hasn’t prospered at all under the direction of Paul Levesque, which is very odd.