Bobby Lashley may no longer be with the WWE, but he has quickly blossomed into one of the biggest stars in professional wrestling and mixed martial arts (MMA).
After being signed to WWE back in 2004 Lashley was sent to their developmental territory of Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW). During his time with WWE Lashley captured the United States Championship and the ECW World Heavyweight Championship. In 2009 Lashley decided to leave WWE and made his way to Global Force Wrestling (GFW) (formerly known as TNA or Impact Wrestling).
In 2008 he also started a career in MMA and competed for promotions such as Strikeforce, Titan Fighting Championship, Shark Fights, and Bellator MMA. He has lost only twice in his fighting career and currently has an eight fight win streak going.
Recently Lashley made an appearance on The Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast to talk about a number of professional wrestling topics.
During the appearance Lashley detailed the beginning of his professional wrestling career and revealed how WWE Hall Of Famer and Monday Night RAW General Manager Kurt Angle helped kick off his career in the industry (quotes via SEScoops):
“Kurt had told me that he knows I loves the Olympics, but that I needed to think about something else, considering there is no pro sports,” Lashley said.
“So, Kurt gave my number to Gerald Brisco for a tryout. My goal was always to win the Olympics so at the time, I had told Brisco to hold off on the tryout because winning the Olympics was my dream.”
He also described how his WWE tryout was a strenuous one as he ruptured his knee hitting the ground during a bank robbery he witnessed. The injury ended his Olympic dreams and soon after got a call from WWE:
“I’m sitting there thinking that this is terrible, with me and my leg brace being on,” he said. “Suddenly the phone rings and it’s Mark Carrano from WWE, and I was thinking, there’s no way.
"We hadn’t had any communication in like 5-6 months. He said to me that he understood that I was interested in the Olympics, but this is a big opportunity, and there’s a lot of buzz that has been passed down the office about you, so we really want you to come to Louisville and sit down with you to see if we can bring you on.
"I said that I was in, so he asked if I could come next week, I told him that I couldn’t, and I kept trying to push the date back because of my knee situation. There was no way I was going to tell them that my knee was ruptured.”
What are your thoughts on Lashley giving Angle credit for getting him into the professional wrestling business? Do you think that Lashley would have found his way to the professional wrestling world anyways? Or did the help of Angle really help jolt Lashley's career into the right direction? Have YOUR say in the comments section below, and the fourth episode of GiveMeSport’s WWE podcast is here!
Check it out via this link: https://soundcloud.com/user-818579649/gms-wwe-podcast-money-in-the-bank-fallout
Do YOU want to write for GiveMeSport? Get started today by signing-up and submitting an article HERE: http://gms.to/writeforgms