Speculation regarding Bobby Lashley when he returned to WWE 

What's the story?

Bobby Lashley returned to WWE the night after WrestleMania back in April but it appears that the company could have originally been looking for him to return a day earlier.

In case you didn't know...

Lashley already has history with WWE as a former ECW Champion and the man who Donald Trump handpicked for his "Battle of the Billionaires" match back at WrestleMania 23 in 2007.

Lashley defeated Umaga in the match and forced McMahon to have his head shaved a few minutes later, which was one of the highlights during his first stint with WWE before being released from the company in the following year.

Since his release, Lashley has been making a name for himself with Impact Wrestling and obviously found himself back on WWE's radar this year when the company was looking for potential opponents for Brock Lesnar, given his MMA background.

The heart of the matter

Lashley teams with Braun Strowman this Sunday night at Backlash in a match against Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn which has led to speculation that the former Champion could have been set to re-debut with the company earlier than the Raw After WrestleMania.

Bryan Alvarez shared his opinion on Lashley's return on the most recent episode of The Wrestling Observer, where he speculated that Lashley's planned return could have been at WrestleMania. (Transcript via Still Real To Us)

"I don't know for sure but I think there's a very good possibility that Lashley was going to be Braun's partner [at WrestleMania] and then somebody came up with what they thought would be a cute idea - which I guess being there live every one thought it was a cute idea after being there 5 or 6 hours, or however long it was - it was 6 hours by the time Braun Strowman found the kid in the crowd, Nicholas. But a very could have been Bobby before that."

This means that Nicholas probably wasn't the original plan for Strowman's partner at WrestleMania, which is why the fall out from their Championship match seemed so awkward when Strowman was forced to relinquish the Championships alongside his 10-year-old teammate.

What's next?

Lashley and Braun Strowman team up to take on Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens on Sunday night at Backlash.

Author's take

Lashley would have been an impressive partner for Strowman if the company had gone through with this plan, but at the same time, it could have been quite underwhelming since Strowman easily defeated The Bar on his own.

Lashley hasn't found his feet in WWE like many thought he would but it's hoped that by Strowman's side in the coming weeks he will finally reach the level that the company wants him to be.