Bobby Lashley Accuses WWE of Deliberately Trying to Bury Him Before His Departure

Bobby Lashley has broken his silence about the frustrations he faced toward the end of his WWE run, admitting he felt sidelined and underutilized despite his status as a top star. Lashley, who enjoyed multiple WWE Championship reigns and led the dominant faction The Hurt Business, saw his career take a surprising downturn in 2023.

During an appearance on The Lame Guys Podcast, Lashley shared how things shifted after his victory over Brock Lesnar via disqualification at Elimination Chamber. At the time, WWE had plans for him to face Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania 39, but with Wyatt forced out of the show due to illness, Lashley was left without a prominent spot on the card. Instead, his only WrestleMania moment involved a brief segment holding his Andre The Giant Battle Royal trophy, with no real storyline attached.

From there, Lashley found himself slowly pushed into the background. While he took on a mentorship role with The Street Profits—helping Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins embrace a more serious attitude—it felt to Lashley that WWE was stalling his momentum. The final major chapter in his WWE story came in the buildup to a six-man tag match at WrestleMania 40 against The Final Testament.

Reflecting on those final months, Lashley explained that despite the setbacks, he did everything he could to shine in the limited time he was given:

“That’s when I got to the end of my career. I mean, when things changed, and it was like I got pulled off of a lot of things and I was like, okay, you can pull me off but, I said just as long as I get a second on TV… Any time when I walked out, ‘Bobby! Bobby!’ The crowd went crazy. I was like, man, they’re trying to bury me as much as they can. Pull me off of WrestleMania the first time in my entire career. Just put me in the back where I was in the background just wearing a suit, doing nothing.”

Despite feeling marginalized, Lashley refused to let the situation dampen his spirit. He shared how he turned even small TV appearances into moments to stand out:

“I was like, all right, you guys can put me in the back and I wear a suit. I’m gonna get some slick ass suits to put on. I was like, any time you guys give me an ounce of time on TV, I’m gonna look like a fricking star and that’s what it’s about.”

Although Lashley’s WWE run ended on a bittersweet note, his fans remember him as one of the most dominant figures of the modern era. His work alongside The Hurt Business and his multiple championship victories solidified his legacy, even if his final storylines didn’t reflect his star power.