5 Dream Matches For Bobby Lashley’s WWE Return

It’s been almost 10 years since Bobby Lashley last set foot in a WWE ring. His heavily rumoured return was not a matter of if, but when, as he returned to WWE on the post-Wrestlemania edition of Monday Night Raw, destroying Elias in the process. In his short 4 year tenure with the company previously, Lashley was pushed to the moon, holding both the United States and ECW Championship, before being released from his contract in 2008.

Since then, Lashley has appeared most prominently in TNA/Impact, ascending to the ranks of one of the companies top stars and improving his wrestling skills immeasurably, holding multiple titles in his time there, including the X-Division Championship, as well as being a 4-time Impact World Heavyweight Champion.

In a WWE.com interview, Bobby Lashley stated that he is back in WWE due to “unfinished business” and to make the big matches happen. With the Superstar Shake-Up approaching, some of these could take longer to get to than others, but with that in mind, here are our 5 dream matches for Bobby Lashley:

 

1. John Cena

Any match with ‘Big Match John’ is a big match. And from a storyline perspective for Lashley, this one actually makes a lot of sense.

Flashback to The Great American Bash in 2007, where Bobby Lashley had his then final PPV match against none other than John Cena, in a losing effort for the WWE Championship.

If Lashley has ‘unfinished business’ then a match with Cena is an obvious choice. How they might get to this point though, given Cena’s current story arc of losing big matches this year (most recently being squashed by Undertaker at WrestleMania 34) is another question.

Whilst it’s highly unlikely that Cena will ever turn heel, perhaps an absence from Cenation Leader could lead to Lashley calling him out for a rematch 10 years in the making.

 

2. Brock Lesnar

At this point in time, there aren’t many fresh opponents left for Brock Lesnar, especially after the kind-of shock ending to the ultimately ‘bleh’ WrestleMania 34 main event, where the Beast again conquered Roman Reigns after 6 F-5s and bleeding the lad like a pig.

We had some seemingly legitimate contenders in the past, like Samoa Joe and Brock Lesnar (if only Jinder had his chance) but all fell short. So now with the return of Bobby Lashley to the red brand, he immediately feels like a force to be reckoned with who may actually stand a chance.

The two have often been compared in the past, both sharing MMA and amateur wrestling backgrounds, and, heck, on a previous edition of ‘The Ross Report’ Bobby Lashley commented that he was up for the match, saying:

“I think the crowd would go insane. And there’s a tremendous amount of money in it. If it were to happen, then I’m open to it.”

If Reigns’ spears can’t keep the Beast down, then maybe Lashley’s can…

 

3. AJ Styles

Their respective paths never crossed in Impact, but both left a legacy behind. Lashley, a 4-time Heavyweight Champion, and Styles, the man who arguably carried the company on his back to relevance in its earlier years.
For anyone familiar with the pair’s background, this could well be the ‘big match’ that Lashley is looking for, by proving himself against ‘The Phenomenal One’.

AJ has already shown that he can put on outstanding matches with bigger guys. Look no further than his match vs Brock Lesnar at Survivor Series last year, which saw one of Lesnar’s best matches since his return a few year ago with some even citing it better than his match with CM Punk at SummerSlam ’13.

For Impact fans, this is a dream match that eluded them. But for WWE fans, there is every possibility that ‘Walking Armageddon’ vs ‘The Phenomenal One’ can still happen.

 

4. Roman Reigns

I know, I know – there’s a lot of people who don’t like Roman Reigns being ‘the guy’. However, irrespective of what your opinions of ‘The Big Dog’ are, you can’t deny the man can put on some solid matches. And even if you really don’t like him, don’t act like you don’t go “OOOO-AAHHHHH” when he sets up for the spear.

Reigns is currently headed towards a rematch with ‘The Conqueror’, Brock Lesnar, at Greatest Royal Rumble in a Steel Cage, after which he’ll likely move to a feud with Samoa Joe, returning from injury this past Monday night on Raw, so a match with Lashley may be a ways off yet.

I’ve already touted Lesnar as a dream opponent for Lashley, and to get there you have to assume that he’ll need to get past Reigns first. I think this could be a match many may be tempted to sleep on, but I predict this would actually be an utter war of attrition, with the two going spear for spear in a contest Lashley would absolutely have to win to position himself as top guy on Raw.

 

5. Seth Rollins

Assuming that WWE does not quickly insert Bobby into the main event picture, it would be utterly baffling for them to place him any lower than the upper-midcard, and you can’t go wrong with a match against Seth Freakin’ Grand Slam Rollins.

Rollins is arguably only equal to AJ Styles in terms of who is the most consistent performer in WWE right now, and WWE could do worse than a high-profile feud for the Intercontinental Championship against Lashley.

Win or lose, the match will only serve to elevate the titles importance, and, given he has held the United States title in the past, it wouldn’t be ridiculous to think Lashley would be coming after a big match for one of WWE’s most relevant titles.

Rollins currently looks to be busy defending the championship against the likes of The Miz, Finn Balor and the returned Jeff Hardy, so may well be busy for a few months, but after that, it definitely won’t be long till Lashley comes looking for gold.

Honourable mentions also go to: Samoa Joe, Braun Strowman, Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura