If WWE Was Being Honest About Bobby Lashley
Lashley received a mild pop, likely stemming from pure relief that he had euthanised this complete embarrassment of a segment. In effect, WWE shovelled sh*t into our mouths, and we were expected to respond favourably when handed the toothpaste. This was the natural nadir of Bobby’s dismal character arc. WWE cycled through every last one of its über-sh*tty modes to get us to this point of no return.
If WWE was being honest about Bobby Lashley, they would acknowledge that this isn’t about Bobby Lashley, not really. He is simply the latest casualty of a virulently counterproductive system so bereft of imagination and self-awareness that it actually regurgitated its own vomit just eight days shy of Bayley: This Is Your Life’s anniversary.
You can all too readily picture Vince McMahon’s easily-pleased mug as Bobby Dennis The Menaced his way through the whole thing. How did this make it onscreen? That is a rhetorical question, but one worth considering, all the same.
The only rational explanation is that a room of terrified writing staffers know that the only way to survive in WWE is to pop the boss and the infamously unfunny sense of humour he is now powerful enough to inflict on us forevermore. They must, must be playing a game of “whoever gets the lamest sh*t pitched gets the beers in” because there is no way, no way that nobody in that room didn’t know that this was rotten.
But, if they didn’t, there is no more critical an exhibit of evidence that in this creative climate, there is so no chance of WWE creating a genuine star ever again. Seth Rollins is on a tear, granted, but he is the one stark exception to a rule that is company wide. WWE doesn’t even know what to do with Ronda Rousey, having telegraphed and retconned two onscreen partnerships and rivalries with Natalya and Mickie James, respectively, before settling on a match between a novice and a liability.
Bobby Lashley is done. He was riding high(ish) in April, and was shot down in May. I wrote that Mauro Ranallo-esque line about Bray Wyatt this time last year.
That’s because the view never changes.