Bobby Lashley was recently interviewed by Sports Illustrated. During the interview, Lashley spoke about his relationship with Paul Heyman.
During this, Lashley ended up revealing the original gimmick that WWE wanted to give him when he first came into the company.
Lashley says that Heyman stopped WWE from giving him a Mr. T gimmick. Here is what he said:
“When I first started out, I came to OVW in 2004. There were a lot of different people who came through, and they were bringing different trainers and different writers putting the show together. I remember when Paul Heyman first came, he called me up in the morning and said, ‘Hey man, what are you doing? Let’s go eat breakfast.’ I’d never met Paul at this point, but we go and eat breakfast. It was unbelievable, we were there talking for four hours. I felt like I’d known him forever. I didn’t know this at the time, but Paul saw me–this big, jacked up dude–and didn’t know me. And none of the other writers knew who I was. They were just writing on what they thought they knew of me–that I should be like Mr. T and run around like, ‘I pity the fool!’ But that’s not me. And that’s why Paul wanted to sit down and talk. He knew he needed to write for this guy, but he didn’t know who I was, and he wasn’t going to just guess. So we just sat and talked forever, and he said, ‘I get this guy.’ And he got me over in a short amount of time.
“I’m a very subtle person. I come from a background where you shut up, you train, and you compete. That’s what Paul saw, and everything he did from then on was highlighting who I was, not trying to put me in a box that didn’t fit. That’s why I was so excited when he came [as the Executive Director of Monday Night Raw], because I knew he gets me, could write for me, and put me in the right position and place on the show. Coming back now on the roster, it’s completely different across the board—how people act, how people get over, how the story is put together. Everything is so different. Right now, we’re trying to break me out of my comfort zone and have a little more fun.”
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On a related note, check out what Lashley had to say about the racist things fans have been saying to him during his storyline with Lana.