Bobby Lashley achieved the greatest achievement of his career by winning the WWE championship at this week’s main event CRUDE. Lashley issued a statement on social media about the title win and talked more about what winning the WWE championship means to him in a recent interview with Ryan Stain for FOX Sports.
“The one thing that is most important to me is more than money, it is that legacy,” said Lashley. “I was able to record my name in the history of professional wrestling that only a few people can say that they actually did. So, when you look at the lineage of people who had that title, to put my name among those guys … I can’t even articulate what it means to me.
“This is huge, because being the WWE champion, they expect a lot from you. You have to load the show. You have a lot of things to go through. You have to place some of the best matches. You have to do the things that many other guys are not doing.
“Before returning to this last race, I said to them, ‘I want all of this. Because that’s what I came back for. I’m going back to that WWE championship and I won’t stop until I get it. So, when I get it, I’m ready to build a legacy. ‘I wanted Bobby Lashley’s time,’ The Almighty ‘Lashley’s time, with that title meaning something, and meaning something big. This is what I want to happen ”.
Lashley then remembered Booker T’s belief in him. He also remembered the things he learned from Vince McMahon, and he revealed what McMahon said to him after he won the WWE title.
“Booker came over and said that once at one of the pre-shows, he was like, ‘Dude, you should be the main event. I don’t know what you’re doing now, but I don’t know why they don’t have Bobby’s main event at WrestleMania. ‘Booker said that, ”recalled Lashley. “For me, it meant the world, because I have a lot of respect for Booker. I have a lot of respect for a lot of the guys that I came and worked with for the first time, like JBL and Booker, some of these guys, so I’ve been hearing some really good words from some of these guys and those words really resonated with me and let me realize to stop just having fun.
“You are not here to have fun. Vince doesn’t want you here to have fun. Vince wants to get into an argument with you because you are fighting for something you want. Vince wants you to get out of the box and do something bigger. Vince wants you to want WrestleMania so much so that the crowd forces them to give it that title. And I think I started to get to that point last year, several months definitely. I’ve been mean, man. I’ve been mean. I go there in full force and there is a lot of confidence going through me.
“When I was able to get through that curtain [after winning the WWE Championship] and give Vince a hug, he grabbed me and hugged me for a while and said, ‘Man, I’m proud of you.’ “