The last two years have been particularly tough for Vince McMahon, who has been overwhelmed by a series of scandals that have damaged his image and reputation. To avoid further trouble, Vince was forced to move away from WWE, propitiating the beginning of a new era for this business. Despite the scandals, no one can deny that Vince made the history of this business and that he led WWE to become a global giant.
His place at the head of the Stamford’s company was taken by Triple H, who decided to radically change the product compared to its predecessor. The Game has brought peace and serenity backstage, improved the relationship between WWE management and athletes by convincing several legends to return after years of absence.
However, not all superstars have benefited from the new era that HHH has started. Bobby Lashley - for example - has never had a great relationship with the former world champion and his WWE run was extinguished after the arrival of Triple H.
After several weeks of speculation, 'The All Mighty' has decided to leave WWE to try a new adventure in All Elite Wrestling. Despite being a veteran, Bobby believes he can still give a lot to this business and his arrival in AEW can benefit both parties.
Bobby Lashley praises Vince McMahon
During a recent interview with Chris Van Vliet, Lashley wanted to thank Vince McMahon (with whom he worked especially during his second stint) for his huge contribution to this business: “I was like, ‘That's heat.' He's like, ‘Check this out.' He gets it. He gets it. That's why I never really questioned anything he does. He put me through some crazy storylines, some very cringey storylines and everything, but I kind of tried to find out why. Sometimes, you go and ask him. ‘Vince, you want me to beat up these three guys dressed as girls called my sisters?' You tell him that, and he goes, ‘Ah. It's great.' ‘Are you sure?' I came in [his office] after they put me with Lio Rush, and they were doing different things with me. ‘Can you explain to me why we're doing this?'”
Vince has always been a huge Lashley’s fan, while Triple H has struggled a lot to enhance his talent in recent months.
Bobby continued: “He said, ‘Bobby, you are so strict and regimented. You are a super nice guy who everybody loves, but you're so strict on yourself and so hard on yourself. I want to see different layers of you. I want them to see different layers of you. I've seen different layers of you, but we can't get it on TV because you're so military. One way of going about that is humility. Sometimes, you have to go and do things that are completely out of your character to be able to get you to different places. I want to see different layers of you.' ‘I'm going to try.' Although I couldn't pull certain things off, I tried. Moving forward, I've been working with acting coaches. He said, ‘That's the greatest thing you can do. You want to be very vulnerable in front of your crowd to be able to gravitate to who you are.' At that point, yes, I do have a limit to certain things I would do, but I was very open to a lot.”
A true champion
‘The All Mighty’ is a two-time WWE Champion, two-time Intercontinental Champion, and he has won the United States Championship on two further occasions. He left WWE in August 2024 after the expiration of his contract. He then signed with AEW, making his debut in October during Fright Night Dynamite.
One of the reasons that prompted Lashley to accept AEW's offer was the greater creative freedom he enjoys in Tony Khan's federation. At this stage of his career, Bobby needs the full support of the management to be able to fully show his talent before starting the second chapter of his life.
Lashley is still in great shape and can compete even with athletes much younger than him, as he has repeatedly shown in recent years.
In the same interview with Chris Van Vliet, the former WWE superstar also talked about his iconic rivalry with Brock Lesnar: “I even went to a point where I was like, man, wouldn’t it be cool that they would have brought us both back here and then put us together, had Paul Heyman find a way to put us both together, and then the whole time we win tag team titles and he keeps referring to I got the greatest fighter in the world and the greatest tag team.
Could have been, I don’t know if we could have put us two together as a tag team because it might have been too dominant, but I still see there were some people in there that we could have had great fights with and great matches with if we needed to.”