Lashley Recalls Trump’s WrestleMania 23 Appearance; It Was ‘A Fiasco But It Was Amazing’
Nearly a decade removed from aligning with Donald Trump, now President of the United States, at WrestleMania, Bobby Lashley reflected during a recent interview and called Trump "the biggest star we [WWE] ever had."
During an interview with The Daily Star, Lashley recalled memories of WrestleMania 23, and the build to the hair vs. hair match at that event that had Lashley defending Trump's hair against Umaga, who was defending the hair of WWE Chairman Vince McMahon. WWE dubbed it as the Battle of the Billionaires, and it ended with McMahon shaved bald… and Trump receiving a Stunner from Stone Cold Steve Austin.
"You do these things throughout your life that you don’t realize how big they were until after it’s done," Lashley said, adding that at the time he was so tuned in to the schedule of being a full-time part of the WWE roster that it felt like "just another match."
That changed at WrestleMania, as Lashley recalled about $250,000 dropping from the rafters of the building onto the crowd during Trump's entrance.
“It was a fiasco but it was amazing, the notoriety that he brought to it and the respect that we got from a lot of different places because of it,” Lashley said.
Lashley left WWE in February of 2008, but last appeared in the squared circle for the promotion the previous summer, as he missed the latter half of 2007 due to a shoulder injury. Since then, Lashley has wrestled regularly for TNA and, for the last three years, has been a main event-level performer for that company.
