Hit em with your favorite pose.
Crossover stars are having all the success in WWE right now as heavyweight boxing champion Tyson Fury has booked a big match with Braun Strowman for WWE Crown Jewel on Oct. 31. Not to be outdone, former UFC Heavyweight Champion Cain Velasquez will challenge Brock Lesnar for the WWE Title at the same event.
When asked by Uproxx about MMA fighters crossing over to WWE, Bobby Lashley replied, “I think because there’s appreciation all the way across the board. I think a lot of the guys in… There’s misconception with the media that says that the fighters don’t like pro wrestling, which is ridiculous because I ran a role before with professional wrestling and MMA. Cain Velasquez is here. Daniel Cormier loves it. Man, King Mo. All these guys have been calling me up saying, “Hey man, I want to get in. I want to get in.” Arlovski just hit me up not too long ago, Dos Santos. All these guys are big wrestling fans, so the sports is just the same. It’s that violence that people like to see it on TV and entertainment. It’s all wrapped up. It’s all the same. It’s all the same.”
Arlovski, dos Santos, and “King Mo” Muhammed Lawal are all closer to the end of their MMA careers. At 35 years old, dos Santos is the youngest of the three. Lashley is a crossover star himself, having had a successful MMA career following his first WWE stint, going 15-2 as a pro.
Before he returned to WWE television on the Sept. 18 episode of NXT, Lio Rush was up on the main roster as Bobby Lashley’s manager. Unfortunately, backstage and attitude issues led to Lio’s removal from television and the road, thus splitting the pairing of Lashley and Lio. But with Lio back in NXT, and being the new NXT Cruiserweight Champion, Lashley wouldn’t mind reuniting with his old friend.
“Man, it’s awesome man. I’m happy for him,” said Lashley. “I already gave him a call and hit him up and told him if he needs any help keeping that title, I’m a phone call away man. I think we got to do something, for him to have the title run and I not show up at all, that’s what we’re going to be missing the boat there. Hopefully I can get in there and maybe throw around some little guys and help him retain that title, because he helped me for an entire year, so I owe him one.”
While Lio is now the NXT Cruiserweight Champion, Lashley can be found making out with Lana, the wife of Rusev.
When asked about the infidelity angle, Lashley replied, “When I grew up watching wrestling, it was just chaos all the time and that’s why we liked it. We went away from that for a little while, but I think the chaos is starting to come back. I want to see people get beat up really bad. I’ve got a number of people that I’m going to come back and beat up really bad. Then the storylines with the women, that’s always something that wrestling has had forever and we’re going back there. The people on top, the people that are putting pen to paper on it, it’s going to be crazy. It’s going to be great. I told them, I said, ‘You know what? There’s people that won’t and there’s people that will, and fuck, I’m all the way will.’ I think it’s going to be fun. I’m ready to do anything. I feel like I’m 20 years old, man.”
Lashley, Lana and Rusev will be on the same brand as all three were drafted to Raw in the 2019 WWE Draft.
