The Fall of Bobby Lashley in the WWE

By:  Black Conservative (@BlackConservative93)

April 9, 2018, the great Bobby Lashley made his WWE Raw return the night after WrestleMania 34.  Months prior, WWE fans wanted his return to dethrone the long and drawn out reign of Brock Lesnar as Universal Champion.  Lesner’s 2017-2018 champion run was decent as he beat most of the top and mid-tier wrestlers from Roman Reigns, Braun Strowman, Samoa Joe and multiple title matches and various stipulations.  Lashley was supposed to be the new guy to do what most wrestlers struggled to do…defeat Lesnar.  Unfortunately, the momentum was weak as he began his 2018 debut tag team with random wrestlers and rivaling with Sami Zayn that led to a racist promo mocking black women.  Luckily, the feud ended quickly and Lashley gained potential as a contender for the Universal title.  Yet, Roman Reigns’s ego made it his prerogative and privilege that only he deserves to fight for the title.  Lashley reminded him multiple times that he failed.

A multi-man match (that was never clear from the start) was announced then cancelled as it was to feature Lashley and Reigns.  The idea was scrapped and the pair was tagged together as a team until they fought at Extreme Rules unofficially for the no. 1 contender.  I say ‘unofficially’ because Lashley won the watch, yet the next day on RAW a rematch was drawn to determine who would face Brock Lesnar.  Reigns beat Lashley brutally with multiple superman punches to the face.  Lashley took a dive which led to Reign beating Lesnar at Summerslam (2018).  The dream of finally have a black champion was torn down.  Why not Raw when Smackdown risked everything to have Jinder Mahal, a jobber turned World Heavyweight Champion, beat Randy Orton multiple times?  Yes, it was unrealistic and he played on the evil brown/Middle-Eastern (even though he is from India) stereotype.  The gain was that WWE had its first Indian descendant WWE Champion.  Granted this was a feat The Great Khali could not do, yet he did become a World Heavyweight Champion.  India had its hero and the WWE praised itself for diversifying the championship.  Yet Raw is too afraid to do the same; yes, Reigns is not white, but he is fair-skinned and racially ambiguous to pass as white or white enough for mainstream media.

I am tired that the Rock was the only black WWE Champion who had WWE invested in his title run, yet his blackness is not really accepted by fans.  I know that the WWE Champion and Universal Champion are two different titles, but I have no fate that contemporary black wrestlers will get a real push.  The New Day would have a successful title run as single competitors to beat AJ Styles for the WWE Champion.

Raw had the closest potential, yet they are gambling their potential for the women’s division as Triple H announced an all women’s Pay-per-View show.  Ronda Rousey won her first title against Alexis Bliss for the first time.  The WWE is full of crap and other wrestling brands like Impact Wrestling need to advocate that they will take better care of their black wrestlers or better yet, an all black wrestling syndication.  I will give the Latino community credit for the nothing to something popularity for Lucha Underground.  Lashley needs to know his worth before he goes out of WWE with no titles under his belt.  Mark Henry has retired with a few titles, but come on, black male championships need to be more frequent.