During a recent edition of his “Grilling JR” podcast, Jim Ross discussed Bobby Lashley’s future in AEW following his victory over Swerve Strickland at Full Gear 2024.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On what he expects from Bobby Lashley in AEW after Full Gear: “The next level. And I told him so to his face. You know, I hired Bobby. Bobby is one of my guys. And I told him, I said, ‘Now it’s the next step. This was good, but not good enough.’ And I think he agreed with that. He wants to have some outstanding in-ring matches. I think that’s great. He’s an athlete, he’s a natural athlete so he’s competitive. And that’s one of the advantages that the guys that were in my role back in the day always looked for. They said, ‘Well, JR is like, he’s crazy about these jocks.’ Yeah, there’s a reason why. Number one, they’re resilient. They get banged up or being dinged up. They go, they go play the game. And secondly, they’re competitive. Nobody wants to have the worst match on the show. Everybody wants to have the best match on the show. If they don’t, then they’re — I don’t know, they should go. Everybody should want to have the best match.
“But that was a good contest. And those guys — you know, I was sitting there ringside, as you alluded to Connie, and they were physical. I mean, a lot of guys wouldn’t wrestle that stiff. Swerve’s always been that way. He’s a physical son of a b**ch, and I love him for it.”
On Darby Allin getting into a car crash for Full Gear angle: “I was impressed with the car crashing because that’s not AEW or any other wrestling company’s forte. It’s a wrestling company. But they shot that, and did a good job of it, I thought. And there was a novel concept. You know, Moxley retaining by the skin of his teeth, cheating to win as a typical heel would do. All the players got a cameo, which is good.”
On Marina Shafir: “And again, I’ll sing the praises of Marina Shafir. She just adds a different element. I have never on this show explained it as I should, because I’m not sure how to explain it, Connie. She’s just that element, that one ingredient to the stew that makes it perfect. So I think she’s been a huge addition to the process.”
