Bobby Lashley Recalls His WWE Debut And Advice He Got From Paul Heyman

Bobby Lashley appeared on the “Chasing Glory” podcast with Lilian Garcia to detail his WWE debut in September 2005.

Prior to his WWE television debut, Lashley spent roughly one year in OVW, working on his craft. 

On the September 23, 2005 edition of SmackDown, Bobby Lashley made his WWE debut. He was billed as a three-time National Amateur Wrestling Champion, a four-time All-American, a two-time Armed Forces Champion, and a 2002 Silver Medalist at the Military World Championship. In his first televised match, he defeated Simon Dean. 

Speaking to Lilian Garcia, Lashley talked about the nerves he felt prior to his debut and the advice he got from Paul Heyman.

“The first time when I debuted on Smackdown, I was not supposed to debut. There was nothing going on, I was just one of the OVW guys that were on the road. So they let me go on the road, do a couple house shows and that was it, I was not supposed to be brought up. And then it goes to TV and I was in catering because there was no way I was doing anything and then someone says, ‘Hey, you have a match tonight’. Immediately my heart starts racing, I was like, ‘Huh? What? What are you talking about?! Me? I’m not supposed to do it!’ But then when I went over there I kind of stepped back in the back and you know what? The person that got me was Paul, Paul Heyman. As crazy as this is, he came and talked to me because he mentored me back in OVW when I was in OVW, he was a writer there and he was the one that talked to me and got to know me. He just walked over to me with that smug little grin that he always has on his face and looked at me and goes, ‘You nervous?’ and I was like, ‘Yeah I’m nervous, what are you talking about? There’s 17,000 people here! I just started wrestling!’ And he goes, ‘The only thing you’re really nervous about is and the only thing that messes you up is this whole anticipation act. When they call your name, you’re going to have to go out and I know you’re going to do great and you’re going to be excited and you’re going to come back and be like, man why did I kill myself before?’ he said, ‘If you can handle this stuff now, the rest is easy.’”