Bobby Lashley Explains How Triple H Convinced Him to Make WWE Return

Bobby Lashley's return to WWE following WrestleMania this year was shocking for many reasons.

In particular, Lashley left WWE not on the best of terms in early 2008. That exit followed a pretty heavy push from the company that saw him main event WrestleMania 23 the previous year. However, disagreements over the storyline use of his girlfriend at the time, Kristall Marshall, as well as backstage issues between Lashley and Michael Hayes caused the release. Lashley is unable to comment on that time period publicly due to a legal agreement between he and the company that was forged at the time.

Following his exit from WWE, Lashley became a success in the MMA world while continuing to wrestle for TNA Wrestling (now Impact Wrestling). He earned a 15-2 professional MMA record and became a multiple time Impact World Champion.

However, the way that Lashley told it to German Suplex Talk, he realized by this year that his time was winding down with Impact, as did someone else: Triple H.

"He knew my run was over," Lashley said. "You know when some people leave you can see how some people mature."

Lashley went on to elaborate on how Triple H noticed upon meeting again how he had kept himself in great shape and matured as a performer.

"When [Triple H] saw me he was like, "damn, you look almost better than you did when you were here before," Lashley said. "He said there's a tremendous amount of money to be made and we'd love to see you come back."

Coming back to WWE has seen Lashley once again rocket to the top of the company, notably in his recent feud with Roman Reigns that saw Lashley earn a victory at Extreme Rules but then lose in a number one contender's match on RAW last week.

While Lashley doesn't currently have a match booked for SummerSlam, there's no doubt that WWE will have something cooked up for him. And by the time Reigns gets a run with a Universal title (we promise, it will happen eventually), Lashley will seem like a logical challenger given his past win at Extreme Rules.