Bobby Lashley has recalled pitching a controversial storyline involving Gunther.
Lashley has been known by his peers to push the envelope. During a recent interview with Chris Van Vliet, Karrion Kross revealed “The Almighty” once suggested that they stage a real fight off camera to add buzz to their WrestleMania feud. Kross said the risk of potentially being fired by WWE was too great to go through with the plan.
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As it turns out, that wasn’t the only extreme suggestion Lashley had to spice things up. The former two-time WWE Champion apparently had his sights set on a rivalry with Gunther, the current World Heavyweight Champion. It wasn’t enough for Lashley to sell fans on two behemoths chopping each other down.
Lashley wanted the feud to get far more personal.
Bobby Lashley Wanted Racial Undertones in Storyline With Gunther
Appearing on “The Lame Guys Podcast,“ Bobby Lashley revealed what direction he wanted to take a rivalry with Gunther in. Lashley said he wanted “The Ring General” to lean into racial undertones (h/t Jeremy Lambert).
“When Gunther was rolling. There was one thing I wanted to do with him, and everybody would have been like, ‘Ohhhhh.’ If we were still the Hurt Business, I was like, ‘I want to roll up on him, and I want Gunther to say, ‘People like you don’t deserve a chance at my title.” People would have been like, ‘What did he say?’ We would have toed that line.
“If you think about the German and these black dudes. ‘Is there a little bit of racial tension there?’ We didn’t have to go there, ‘What do you mean by ‘People like you?” He could be like, ‘Older guys in wrestling.’ The crowd would have been like, ‘Uhhh, did he say that?’ Then I was going to say, ‘I think you look familiar,’ and do one of these [Holds his thumb to his top lip, indicating a mustache]. There it is!”
It’s easy to see WWE going through with the idea in the Ruthless Aggression era 20 years ago. After all, there was the infamous angle with “Triple H” and Booker T. Today, it would’ve been more difficult to achieve given current social norms and WWE’s sponsorships. While WWE has provided an edgier product since Paul “Triple H” Levesque took over creative, there are still boundaries in place.
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