Bobby Lashley On What Vince McMahon Said To Him Following WWE Championship Win
Bobby Lashley accomplished the biggest feat of his career by winning the WWE Championship in the main event of this week's RAW. Lashley has issued a statement on social media on his title victory, and he spoke more on what winning the WWE Championship means to him in a recent interview with Ryan Stain for FOX Sports.
"The one thing that is more important than anything for me, it's more than money, it's that legacy," Lashley stated. "I was able to etch my name into the history of professional wrestling that only a few people can say that they actually have. Then, when you look at the lineage of people that have held that title, to put my name amongst those guys ... I can't even articulate what that means to me.
"This is huge, because being the WWE Champion, they expect a lot out of you. You gotta carry the show. You got a lot of things to go through. You gotta put on some of the best matches. You gotta do the things that a lot of the other guys aren't doing.
"Before I came back on this last run, I told them, 'I want all of that. Because that's what I came back for. I'm coming back for that WWE Championship and I'm not stopping until I get it. Then, when I do get it, I'm ready to build a legacy.' I wanted Bobby Lashley's time, 'The Almighty' Lashley's time, with that title to mean something, and mean something big. That's what I want to make happen."
Lashley then recalled Booker T's belief in him. He also recalled the things he was taught by Vince McMahon, and he revealed what McMahon said to him after he won the WWE Title.
"Booker came on and said it one time on one of the pre-shows, he was like, 'Man, you should be main eventing. I don't know what you're doing right now, but I don't know why they don't have Bobby main eventing WrestleMania.' Booker said that," Lashley recalled. "To me, that meant the world, because I have so much respect for Booker. I have so much respect for a lot of the guys that I came up and first worked with, like JBL and Booker, some of those guys, so I've been hearing some really good word from some of those guys and those words really resonated in me and let me realize to stop just having fun.
"You're not here to have fun. Vince doesn't want you here to have fun. Vince wants to get in an argument with you because you're fighting for something that you want. Vince wants you to step out of the box and do something bigger. Vince wants you to want WrestleMania so much that the crowd forces them to give you that title. And I think I started to get into that point this last year, several months definitely. I've been mean, man. I've been mean. I go out there with a vengeance and there's a whole lot of confidence running through me.
"When I was able to go through that curtain [after winning the WWE Championship] and give Vince a hug, he grabbed me and he held me for a while and was like, 'Man, I'm proud of you.'"