On Tuesday the 27th of January 2015, Rory, Mitch and our then photographer – Emon Kazem of EK Photography took a trip down to the Park Plaza Hotel in London for an exclusive Interview with the then-TNA World Heavyweight Champion, The Destroyer: Bobby Lashley.
TVW: Thank you for having us, Bobby –it’s a genuine pleasure. Firstly, as someone who always seemed poised to be a big time player in the WWE, but never seemed to be pushed enough, how does it feel to be recognised in TNA for what you should be; a World Heavyweight Champion?
Lashley: Well, it’s a good thing. You know when you get into the business that you have to prove yourself. It’s all about timing with wrestling. There’s a lot of people that have the ability to be at the top but timing doesn’t always allow it and I think that this time with TNA was right. It’s a blessing as TNA gave me the opportunity to do this – they gave me the ball to see if I could run with it – and I seem to be able to run with it really well, so yeah. I’m excited about it.
TVW: You’ve held the WWE US Championship, the WWE ECW Championship twice and are currently starting your second reign as TNA Champion. Which title victory has meant the most to you and why?
Lashley: I think this current one. The only reason why is that it’s the World Heavyweight Title. Of course winning the United States and ECW titles was great., but the one thing I like about this run is that when I was in WWE I knew how to wrestle, but didn’t understand how to wrestle. After I got out of the WWE I started working independents for a while to hone my craft but I was still kind of unsure as far as my abilities were concerned but now I think I’m more of a complete wrestler. I’ve had some tremendous matches with Jeff Hardy, Austin Aries, Eric Young and I just had one with Bobby Roode. And, I think that to a crowd that do not want me to be champion because of coure, going to TNA from WWE – they hate to see a WWE guy hold the title but that isn’t the case here, I’m finding new ways to prove it too!
TVW: Since winning your first title with TNA you’ve had feuds with Eric Young, Jeff Hardy, Bobby Roode, Austin Aries. Is there anyone left on the TNA roster that you haven’t faced yet that you’d love to defend the title against?
Lashley: Kurt Angle.
I’ve told this story many times and I’m going to keep putting it out there until it’s BEGGED to happen. When I was in High School, I used to watch this tape that I’d recorded of the NCAA Championship. And they did this whole story on a heavyweight match up, with the story being on Sylvestor Turkay. Sylvestor Turkay was wrestling Kurt Angle for the NCAA Championship. The whole story leading up to the match was about Sylvestor Turkay so Kurt Angle was supposed to be coming in as like a jobber even though Kurt should have been one of the top guys in there, and Kurt beat him! I watched that tape all the time as it was a phenominal match.
After that I went to college and won three national championships, he went on to the Olympic training centre then won a gold medal. I followed him there afterwards. When I was in the training centre he was in the WWE and he came back so they could film this vignette, and there was some little moments where I was in the background. Afterwards, Kurt came to me and said “Hey man, you should think about pro wrestling. You’ve got a great look, great build—have you thought about it?” and I said “Yes, but right now I’m in the middle of Olympic training, so I can’t say yes to it but someday” and he said “well let me get you in touch with the right people” and to make a long story short, I ended up in WWE.
Then after I was there for a year, Kurt left for TNA. After that, I left and went to TNA, so our careers kind of followed each other right the way around and this entire time, me and Kurt have never done anything together. I think that Kurt’s one of the best people in professional wrestling across the board and I’ve never done anything with him. So I am just chomping at the bit for the opportunity to wrestle Kurt Angle. I hope it’ll be with the title on the line or be some kind of big feud where I go after Kurt because of the whole motto “To be the man, you’ve got to beat the man” and right now the man is Kurt Angle.
But what I have to get is Kurt back to the Kurt Angle he was when he was the biggest thing in wrestling.
Bobby Lashley was the current TNA World Heavyweight Champion at time of interview and had an awful lot of things to talk to us about when we met him in January. So much so, that we were fortunate enough to record it for our first ever Team Venom Wrestling Podcast, which is now available on YouTube so to hear the entirety of what the Champ had to say, head over to http://youtu.be/aGxyupCMuyE
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