Bobby Lashley Explains How Missing Out On WrestleMania 39 Influenced His Persona

Bobby Lashley has portrayed a laser-focused and no-nonsense attitude since returning to WWE, and he explained how missing out on a spot at WrestleMania 39 helped bring it about.

On a recent edition of the “After The Bell” podcast, Lashley discussed the change in his attitude, his alliance with The Street Profits, and more.

You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:

On feeling left out of WrestleMania: “You know, our business is very troubling at times. And it’s very stressful mentally, because you want to know where you’re at. And if you’re talking about just the last kind of break I took, I think a lot of things. The situation revolving WrestleMania kind of really hit me pretty hard. You know, I put in a lot of work throughout the year, put myself at a certain level in the company. And I’ve kept that level up. I work my ass off, I train hard all the time. Everybody knows, that’s just me. And then when that big show came around, I just I didn’t have a spot at WrestleMania.

“And you try to hold it in, and when you have your kids calling when you’re supposed to be there — and I’m there in Los Angeles, ready to go. You know, the whole time just thinking, ‘Oh, just call me in coach. Call me in. You know, I’m that guy thats like, ‘Call me in.’ And I’m ready, and then my kids after the first day calling, ‘Hey Dad are you going to be on ? Because if you’re going to be, on we’ll fly up there, we want to see you.’ Because they’ve been to everything that I was in. And that was kind of a little bit of a mind trip, you know, to kind of take a backseat at a time like that.”

On how that influenced his character on his return: “So with coming back, I look at my career and some of the things that I did in my career and I was like, ‘When were the times that I was the most successful?’ And those times were when I really didn’t care as much. Because a lot of people know me in the wrestling business and backstage, whatever, everybody’s like ‘Bobby’s a nice guy, Bobby’s a good guy.’ And I always carry myself that way. But in this business you see a lot of people kind of like just walk over and step over and and get their treatments, and get their special treatments and everything like that. And if you’re not one of those guys to get that kind of treatment, you got to start taking what you want.

“And so that was me personally. But then looking at the landscape of some of the guys in the business, I’m looking, ‘Who are those guys that kind of fit that same ideal that I was in?’ And the first people that came in into into mind is the Street Profits. Those guys are extremely talented. Take the gloves off, they can whoop anybody in the business right now. But they’re sitting back eating catering, not getting spotlighted, don’t have titles. Not in the title picture. It’s like, ‘Come on, man.’ It’s the same thing that we did before when I had the group The Hurt Business. It was a lot of guys with huge amounts of potential that weren’t getting their just due. So that’s kind of been my MO in this business all along. I’m that guy that if you need me for something I can be there for you. If you need me to represent the company, I can represent the company as a professional wrestler, I can represent the company as a businessman. I can represent the company any way you need it to be represented at a high level. But the spotlight is what’s important in this business.”

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