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Bobby Lashley says he only agreed to remain on the WWE Day 1 card after receiving assurances about his role in the main event.
Big E was originally supposed to defend the WWE Championship in a Fatal 4-Way match against Lashley, Kevin Owens, and Seth Rollins. Shortly before the show, WWE’s decision-makers added Brock Lesnar to the match after his scheduled opponent, Roman Reigns, tested positive for COVID-19.
Speaking on Corey Graves’ After The Bell podcast, Lashley said he wanted to pull out following Lesnar’s last-minute addition to the WWE Championship encounter. When he realized that was not possible, The All Mighty made sure he looked as strong as possible during his interactions with The Beast Incarnate.
“They were like, ‘Nah, nah, you’ve gotta stay in the match,'" said Lashley. "I was like, ‘All right. Well, the times that I do lock horns with him, I’m gonna get what I need to get out of it.’ There was a lot of people that were kind of like not happy about it, but I looked at it as, ‘First, get me out of the match. If I’m staying in the match, the interactions I have with Brock, I have to make a statement.’”
Lashley clarified that he asked to be removed because he wanted WWE to save his first in-ring battle with Lesnar for another time. Paul Heyman’s client went on to win the Fatal 5-Way match, but Lashley looked strong in defeat.
Bobby Lashley thinks Brock Lesnar has been “ducking” him
The latest episode of RAW featured an in-ring promo segment between Bobby Lashley and Brock Lesnar. One of the highlights came when Lesnar told a knock-knock joke, which ended with the punchline, “Bobby who? Exactly.”
During this segment, The All Mighty stated that Lesnar has tried to avoid him throughout their careers, both in professional wrestling and mixed martial arts. Reiterating that comment, the former WWE Champion told Corey Graves that his rival has been “ducking” him for two decades.
“For 17 years, or if you wanna say 18, 19, 20, whatever you wanna say, it’s been a long time, he had an opportunity to get in the ring with somebody equal or greater, and he chose not to for so long," Lashley continued. "But I told him when I went out there, ‘You’ve been ducking me, man. You’ve been ducking me for 20 years.’”
Brock Lesnar is set to defend his WWE Championship against Bobby Lashley at the Royal Rumble on January 29. The two men have never faced each other in a one-on-one match before.
Please credit After The Bell and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription if you use quotes from this article.
