Bobby Lashley Retaining Over Drew McIntyre Was The Right Call

WrestleMania 37 kicked off—after the rain delay—with “The All Mighty” Bobby Lashley defending the WWE Championship against two-time former champion, Drew McIntyre.

A backstage confrontation during the aforementioned rain delay kept tempers gave way to a heated contest between the two heavyweights. Three consecutive Future Shock DDTs and an atypical over-the-toprope dive to the outside from the challenger could not put the champion away. McIntyre’s inability to hit Lashley with the Claymore—the final attempt being thwarted by an MVP distraction—led to the champion putting the challenger out with The Hurt Lock to retain.

McIntyre getting another opportunity for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 37 made sense. Not only was he not decisively beaten to lose the title, but his monumental championship victory over Brock Lesnar the previous year that was set to take place in front of 60,000 fans at Raymond James Stadium, ended up happening in front of an empty audience due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

After a year of proving true to his potential as the star workhorse of the Raw brand with entirely virtual audiences, the possibility of McIntyre finally getting his full-audience WrestleMania moment had many predicting that he would walk out of Tampa Bay a three-time WWE Champion.

While Drew McIntyre undoubtedly has more world championship reigns in his future, Bobby Lashley retaining was the best decision for WrestleMania 37.

For that present moment, it was Bobby Lashley’s time to shine. At 44 years old, Lashley’s run since taking on MVP has elevated him towards elite status and has exemplified just how great he can be when not saddled with ridiculous fitness poses or soap opera-esque storylines.

His WWE Championship victory over The Miz was widely acclaimed, in part because it was an overdue accomplishment that he seemed well on track for before departing from the company in 2007, and one that horrendous booking put out of his reach upon his 2018 return. For Lashley to get to such a big stage as WrestleMania only for his title reign to end a month in would’ve been unbefitting in comparison to the path of dominance that he has been on for the last year.

Bobby Lashley winning at WrestleMania shows that he is actually valued as a main event talent and not just a transitional champion. The significance of black wrestlers being involved in every championship match on night one of WrestleMania cannot be understated either.

MVP playing a pivotal role in the outcome of Lashley vs. McIntyre foreshadows more battles ahead for “The All Mighty” and “The Scottish Warrior”. Whether McIntyre receives another opportunity in the near future or someone else on the roster—Keith Lee for example—steps forward to threaten Lashley’s dominion over the Raw brand, Raw episodes for hopefully months to come will center around who will be the one to finally topple the “Chief Hurt Officer” for the WWE Championship.

Bobby Lashley is in peak form at the helm of the red brand. Regardless of how long his title reign lasts from here on out, his emphatic show-opening victory against Drew McIntyre will go down as one of the top moments of WrestleMania 37.