Bobby Lashley Comments On New WWE Management After McMahon Retirement
Former WWE CEO and Chairman Vince McMahon announced his resignation from his WWE duties on July 22, stepping away from the company he spent 40+ years building into an empire amidst an investigation into a series of hush money payments McMahon allegedly made to former female employees. Though his retirement comes at a questionable given these reports, the wrestling world has largely paid their respects to the 76-year-old, and reigning WWE United States Champion Bobby Lashley joined that list when he spoke with Wrestling Inc. Senior News Editor Nick Hausman during an interview ahead of this weekend's WWE SummerSlam event.
"I have a tremendous amount of respect for Vince," Lashley said. "Vince created something that is unheard of. I told him when I heard the news, it's amazing how many people he's taken care of. He put my kids through school, he put a roof over my head, and he did it for so many other people. There's thousands of people that can say that.
"He's a pioneer of the business, he created an empire. The reason why I'm standing here today is because of him, so of course, I have all the respect for Vince and I hope that things get worked out however they may. I hope that I can always be able to contact him and get some advice with things moving forward."
In the wake of McMahon's retirement, WWE announced that Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan would be taking over his duties as co-CEOs of the WWE, and that Paul Levesque, fka Triple H, would be the man with the final say in creative. Lashley believes WWE will continue to thrive as the "number one organization" in professional wrestling with Stephanie and Levesque in charge.
"At the same time, Triple H is here, Stephanie McMahon is here, these are two great minds of the business," Lashley said. "As I was going through [the beginning of my career], I would always go over to Triple H and I would ask him different questions on matches, psychology, on just the business in general. He's always had an answer for me, so I know our business is in great hands, and the roster that we have is unheard of.
"Even this weekend, the SummerSlam roster, look at it. It's stacked ... there's a lot of people that aren't even on that show. The future is great for WWE, it's going to keep going in the right direction, it's going to keep getting bigger and better and taking over."
Lashley is set to defend his United States Championship against Theory at this Saturday's WWE SummerSlam premium live event. The two previously fought at Money in the Bank, where Lashley won the championship — though Theory's night ended with him becoming the holder of the Men's MITB briefcase.