Bobby Lashley opened up about his frustrations during the last year of his WWE career, revealing that he felt sidelined and underutilized despite his status as a top talent. Lashley, who had previously enjoyed multiple WWE Championship reigns and led a successful faction like The Hurt Business, saw an unexpected decline in his career trajectory in 2023.
Speaking on The Lame Guys podcast, Lashley discussed how things changed after his disqualification win over Brock Lesnar at Elimination Chamber 2023.
WWE originally planned for him to face Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania 39, but when Wyatt was sidelined due to illness, Lashley was left without a main storyline. Instead, his WrestleMania appearance was limited to a short segment where he held his Andre The Giant Battle Royal trophy, with no narrative tied to it.
Following this, Lashley gradually found himself pushed to the sidelines. He took on a mentorship role with The Street Profits, helping Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins adopt a more intense approach, but felt his own momentum stalling. His last major storyline came in the lead-up to a six-man tag match at WrestleMania 40 against The Final Testament.
Reflecting on these final months, Lashley shared that he aimed to make the most of his limited opportunities, striving to shine in even the smallest TV segments despite feeling marginalized. He kept his spirits high and continued to stand out whenever he could.
Here’s what The All Mighty said:
“That’s when I got to the end of my career. I mean, when things changed, and it was like I got pulled off of a lot of things and I was like, okay, you can pull me off but, I said just as long as I get a second on TV… any time when I walked out, ‘Bobby! Bobby!’ The crowd went crazy.
I was like, man, they’re trying to bury me as much as they can. Pull me off of WrestleMania the first time in my entire career. Just put me in the back where I was in the background just wearing a suit, doing nothing.
I was like, all right, you guys can put me in the back and I wear a suit. I’m gonna get some slick a$$ suits to put on. I was like, any time you guys give me an ounce of time on TV, I’m gonna look like a fricking star and that’s what it’s about.”
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