Bobby Lashley Reflects On Being Mentored By Paul Heyman, His Main Roster Debut

Bobby Lashley has reflected on being mentored by Paul Heyman as well as making his debut on WWE SmackDown in 2005.

The former ECW Champion recently made an appearance on Chasing Glory with Lilian Garcia to talk about various topics including what Heyman told him just moments before making his main roster debut.

Lashley started out the story by stating that he wasn’t supposed to debut on that episode of the blue brand as there was nothing going on for him but rather he was just one of the OVW talents who were on the road with the main roster at the time and they allowed him to work a few dark matches at house shows.

This is when he was backstage and in catering when someone came up to him to tell him that he was working a match that night. He was taken back by that news then he walked over and there was Paul Heyman.

“As crazy as this is, he came and talked to me because he mentored me back in OVW when I was in OVW, he was a writer there and he was the one that talked to me and got to know me. He just walked over to me with that smug little grin that he always has on his face and looked at me and goes, ‘You nervous?’ and I was like, ‘Yeah I’m nervous, what are you talking about? There’s 17,000 people here! I just started wrestling!’

Lashley continued the story by stating that Heyman told him that the only thing that messes you up is this whole anticipation act. He noted that Heyman told him once they call his name, then he will have to go out and will do great. Heyman reassured that he is going to be excited then once coming back from the ring, he would think about ‘man why did I kill myself before?’ Lashley added that if you can handle this stuff now, the rest is easy.

The WWE RAW Superstar brought up his future goals in the WWE where he stated that he wanted to be a household name and future hall of famer in wrestling as he wants to pay his dues, travel the world and have an impact on people while he wins titles and set records.

Lashley added that “I want to have the respect from some of the people that I wrestled with and say, ‘You know what, I really enjoyed wrestling with Bobby.’ I want to have the fans come and say, ‘You know what, that was awesome what he did. He left, came back 10 years later and still was on the top, still set records, and was able to get back afterwards.’”

Lashley also talked about being portrayed as a heel, his love for pro wrestling and much more. You can listen to the full episode here: