Why Hasn’t Bobby Lashley vs. Brock Lesnar Happened in WWE?

On the surface, a battle of behemoths between Brock Lesnar and Bobby Lashley seems tailor-made for a major WWE pay-par-view. Lashley has openly campaigned for it numerous times, and fan anticipation was at an all-time high when “The All Mighty” finally won the WWE Championship several weeks back. But WWE has already dashed the hopes of it happening at WrestleMania 37 by confirming Lashley will take on Drew McIntyre next month. Dave Meltzer was asked about the topic during the latest Wrestling Observer Radio and confirmed it was originally planned when Lashley re-signed with the company in 2018.

“You know they never did that match so it’s something new,” Meltzer said (h/t WrestlingNews.co). “You know when Bobby Lashley came in he was told that he was going to get Brock and that was years ago. It just never materialized. They just never got around to it. It’s not that they couldn’t do it, they just never got around to it.”

Lashley initially left the WWE in 2008 and returned 10 years later following WrestleMania 34. He was seemingly on his way to a main event push by beating Roman Reigns at Extreme Rules and was in the running to face Lesnar for the Universal Champion at that year’s SummerSlam, but Reigns wound up winning their No. 1 contender’s match and eventually beat “The Beast.” Lashley was left to slowly move down the card, eventually holding the Intercontinental Championship twice before losing to “The Demon” Finn Balor at WrestleMania 35.

In a new interview with TMZ Sports this week, Lashley went so far as to challenge the former UFC Heavyweight Champion to an MMA fight.

“Well, I’ll tell you this, I woke up in the morning, I did my cardio, I ate my breakfast, I’m doing some interviews, I gotta go workout after this, I’ll be eating lunch. I can only control the things that I can control,” Lashley said. “I’m willing to fight, I’m willing to wrestle, I’m willing to do a doggone 100 meter dash, I don’t care. I like those big matchups. I think Brock is one of the biggest things across the sports industry, the sports world, across the board. So if I can have an opportunity to fight Brock or wrestle Brock, or do anything against Brock, I am 100% in, and I will be ready. That’s all I got to say about that.”

He then delivered a message to Lesnar’s advocate, Paul Heyman.

“It’s not to Brock Lesnar, it would be more like to Paul Heyman. Paul, call me. Before you guys always said that I had nothing or no reason for him to come after me. (Looks at WWE title) Now I do,” Lashley said.