During a recent appearance on the “Lame Guys” podcast, Bobby Lashley discussed a potential rivalry with GUNTHER in WWE that he believes could have been significant.
Lashley noted that the feud could have alluded to “racial tension” and “toed the line.”
He said, “I called GUNTHER out, I should have wrestled Gunther. ‘Oh, I don’t think it’s the right time.’ What the f**k are you talking about? Cody, why aren’t you…me. If you have to beat me, beat me. I’m the obstacle that you should overcome, not your buddy. It’s not anything harping on any of these guys, but that’s what wrestling is about. It’s about overcoming those obstacles. Look for those challenges. ‘Can I have a good match against this guy?’ That’s a challenge. There are certain people you can have a match with right now and you’re going to have a great match. Seth (Rollins), AJ (Styles), you’ll have great matches with them. Take some of those guys you may not be able to have a good match with, and show that you can. That’s what we need to have a little bit more of. It’s not taking anything away from the champions, I think everybody is doing fantastic, I just wish I had I the opportunity to go against some of these guys and let the crowd see it. I think we were scared. ‘I don’t know if we want to have Bobby confront these guys.’ I don’t know if that was it. When Gunther was rolling, there was one thing I wanted to do with him, and everybody would have been like, ‘Ohhhhh.’ If we were still the Hurt Business, I was like, ‘I want to roll up on him, and I want Gunther to say, ‘People like you don’t deserve a chance at my title.” People would have been like, ‘What did he say?’ We would have toed that line. If you think about the German and these black dudes. ‘Is there a little bit of racial tension there?’ We didn’t have to go there, ‘What do you mean by ‘People like you.” He could be like, ‘Older guys in wrestling.’ The crowd would have been like, ‘Uhhh, did he say that?’ Then I was going to say, ‘I think you look familiar,’ and do one of these [Holds his thumb, indicating a mustache]. There it is! I don’t know if we could have went there, but if we could have. There are so many things you could toe the line with there, and it could have been a huge feud.”
During a recent interview with TV Insider, Shelton Benjamin discussed his decision to sign with AEW and the reason he took his time before committing to any promotion following his release from WWE.
Benjamin will face Swerve Strickland on tonight’s episode of AEW Dynamite.
You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On signing full-time with another company after leaving WWE: “Initially, my first thought was to take a vacation. I wouldn’t say I was doing a lot over there, but my life pretty much revolved around WWE and pro wrestling. My first thought was to take a break, reconnect with my family, and take my time to make decisions. I always figured I would go somewhere. I wanted to put pro wrestling on the back burner for a while. I was first able to do that. Then when it was time for me to really start considering what companies to go to, my first thought was AEW. It took a while, but things worked out, and I’m here.”
On why the delay happened: “It was a little bit of everything. One is timing. Sometimes it just takes people a long time to connect. There were some creative differences in the beginning. It wasn’t major. Just light talks. There wasn’t a hard push to get into the company, but more let’s see what they’re thinking right now. Later, with things happening and certain people becoming available. It just made more sense to pursue it. At the end of the day, I want to have the biggest audience possible. There is no place bigger than AEW. That’s where my focus was.”
On his initial impression of AEW: “The first thing that surprised me was all these familiar faces that I didn’t realize were actually in AEW. I’m talking about writing, production and other talent I didn’t know were in AEW. There was almost a sigh of relief because there was so much familiarity there. I was actually surprised by how comfortable I felt and how welcoming everyone was, top to bottom. So far it has been great. Everyone has been really helpful and respectful. So far it has been a great experience. I hope to continue that.”
On wrestling Swerve Strickland on a themed show: “As far as the theme goes, I don’t get wrapped up in themes. Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, Halloween, I work the same way no matter what day it is. I’m about business. I’m going to try to steal the show. I’m going to bust my a**. It doesn’t matter to me. As far as Swerve goes, I would say in the last few years I’ve watched him go from relative obscurity in the mainstream. We knew about his work in NXT and things like that, but he comes from relative obscurity in mainstream pro wrestling. Now he is on the door of becoming a household name. That is a testament to him as a performer, a man and the faith AEW has put in him. So far he has been delivering. He is phenomenal. I think his ceiling is so high. I think he is going to be the guy for that company for many years to come. MVP and I approached him about doing business together. That didn’t work out the way we wanted. Now it’s the other side Now I got to know. I’m going in to see why he is so special and why he thinks he is so special. I’m not going to make it easy on him. He has to prove why he thinks he is the man. I think he is a special talent, but he is not the standard of excellence I am.”
