Showcasing an arsenal of neat moves or putting together a compelling story through your move set? Which do you prefer? For Bobby Lashley, he would rather explain why he likes to hurt people through an action story, rather than show you how he likes to hurt people with no backstory. When the “All Mighty” first started his wrestling career with legends like Batista, Rey Mysterio, his current manager MVP, and the late great Eddie Guerrero, they were all inspired to convey stories that would live on long after their careers, which Lashley agrees needs to be brought back in this new age of wrestling.
“When I first got into wrestling, it’s over 20 years now…the biggest thing that they did was they didn’t care about the moves, they thought about the story. They were like, ‘How did that make sense?'” the current AEW World Tag Team Champion said on “The F Y’all Podcast.” “I think the generations moved a little bit right now because it’s different now. It’s something that we’ve had a hard time with kind of adjusting to. Just like that question, the crowd has to answer that question, too. But these guys…it’s not everyone, but a lot of people that are wrestling now, they try to erase that…It’s like everybody’s the same. They just have matches.”
Every time he steps into the ring, Lashley likes to keep in mind that some fans watching him might be seeing him for the first time, knowing they are trying to piece together the believability of witnessing a David versus Goliath beatdown, where, in real life, Goliath would defeat David any day. So, to Lashley, he emphasizes the art of believability, and that, comes from telling a story of how it could go either way in a realistic sense, that leads up to a cultivating resolution in a blockbuster match.
“When you bring somebody that is not a pure wrestling fan, somebody that’s just starting out being a wrestling fan, they see me standing in front of this guy and they see this guy doing stuff to me, they’re like, ‘What? Don’t make any sense,'” Lashley chuckled. “So, for me, when we go into some of those things, we have to tell that story.”
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “The F Y’all Podcast with C.T. Fletcher,” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
