Bobby Lashley was fired due to his ex-girlfriend's backstage behavior, Eric Bischoff recalls

Eric Bischoff recently disclosed details about the time he fired Bobby Lashley and Kristal Marshall in TNA/IMPACT.

Marshall performed as Lashley's valet in TNA between October 2009 and January 2010. The former real-life couple left the company in February 2010 after it was decided that their act was no longer needed.

Bischoff, a TNA executive at the time, revealed on his 83 Weeks podcast that Marshall's backstage behavior led to their departures:

"Bobby was like working with butter, he was so easy. I'm talking about backstage. Just classy, easy, professional. Kristal was not. She was a little hard to deal with. She kinda ran that show, so that created a little bit of tension as time went on. She got in the way of Bobby's career, not that it hurt Bobby at all. Obviously TNA was not gonna be where Bobby was gonna end up." [1:10:55 – 1:11:36]

Lashley and Marshall dated between 2007 and 2010. They have two children together, Myles (born in 2008) and Naomi (born in 2011).

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What did Eric Bischoff tell Bobby Lashley before firing him?

While Eric Bischoff spoke to Bobby Lashley about his release, he had no say in the current WWE Superstar's TNA exit. The former WCW President was told by his fellow higher-ups to pass on the news.

Bischoff did not tell Lashley the real reason why he was getting fired. Instead, he simply informed the MMA veteran that his services were not required moving forward:

"I guess I could have said, 'Bobby, the process is just too cumbersome with your beautiful wife [girlfriend] here involved, and we've made the decision that you'd be better off somewhere else,'" Bischoff continued. "I could have, and probably should have, done that, but I didn't. I was just pretty straightforward with, 'We're gonna let you go.'" [1:13:14 – 1:13:34]

Lashley worked for TNA again between 2014 and 2018, during which time he won the company's World Heavyweight Championship four times. The All Mighty then returned to WWE, where he became a two-time world champion.

Do you have any memories of Bobby Lashley and Kristal Marshall's on-screen alliance? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Please credit 83 Weeks and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.