WWE Raw: Can Bobby Lashley Finally Break Through?

Bobby Lashley has been struggling for relevance on WWE Raw. This week, creative has paired him up with the talented Lio Rush. Can this help Lashley break through to the next level?

Bobby Lashley’s return to WWE Raw has been underwhelming so far, to be honest, which is strange to say the least. Lashley is equal times intimidating and charismatic. He also possesses the size and look the WWE often seeks for. Moreover, he is a proven performer in multiple avenues and is always touted as a big name. However, the aura and mystique surrounding him when rumors of an eventual return to the WWE have greatly subsided.

A lot of the blame for this can be placed on the creative team. He was placed in a forgetful feud with Sami Zayn before moving on to Roman Reigns. While the two of them had some standard matches, the feud failed to capture the attention of the audience. After losing clean to Reigns in the rubber match, Lashley was then placed in a program with Elias, which involved some horrendous promo work.

Afterwards, it finally seemed like creative was starting to build him up again, by having him squash the Ascension, but then, last week Kevin Owens would return and assault Lashley and it seems like we’ll get  a match between these two probably during the Hell in a Cell kick-off show. However, something noteworthy happened this week on Raw though.

Out of the blue, Lio Rush popped up on-screen to motivate Lashley as he went about minding his own business, doing bicep curls with injured ribs, which have been bandaged. It is noteworthy that creative did at least that much to give some kind of continuity to Owens’s attack from last week. Anyhow, except for Lashley once again repeating the ‘My Man’ phrase, the segment was interesting in many aspects.

In fact, it could probably be what is needed to bring him back to prominence on Monday nights. Lashley has never been solid on the mic. While it would have been a great idea to pair him up with Paul Heyman, that never came to fruition, but this new pairing out of the blue can rejuvenate Lashley perhaps. One thing is clear – he needs to stop being the smiling, polite baby-face persona.

Rush is there to do that for him now. Lashley needs to drop the ‘all smiles’ attitude and all those colorful headbands. He instead needs to be an intimidating predator in the ring, squashing the likes of Ascension and a bunch of local competitors, much like the early dealings of Braun Strowman. However, there is one problem – Kevin Owens will surely be lingering around, and with creative making an angle out of him quitting and returning to make life hell for Lashley, continuity and logical storytelling are at stake here.

If creative decides to invest time in Lashley and build him up once more, then the sense of urgency surrounding Owens’s entire antic becomes pointless. However, on the flip side, if they decide to go through with the whole program with Owens, then Lashley suffering defeat at the hands of the heel will do him further damage. Then again, after making so much fuss, Owens needs to win this feud to retain some kind of credibility for himself.

Creative has essentially booked themselves into a corner at this point in time. However, if they were to let this program between Lashley and Owens take the back seat for a while and ensure that both stars are given time to evolve themselves under their current roles, we could be in for Lashley’s first great feud in the WWE since his return.