Bobby Lashley Talks Hate He’s Received Over His Angle With Lana, Rusev
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Bobby Lashley recently did an interview with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated where he spoke about a wide range of topics.
In the interview, he talked about his storyline with Lana and Rusev. Here are the highlights:
Feedback on Lana angle:
“Yes, I’ve experienced a tremendous amount of hate. We as a society come out and we’re anti-bullying, anti-hate, anti-this, anti-that, but I think we actually pick and choose who we hate and bully. Because everybody still knows me, and knows what I do and what I’m capable of doing—what I’ve done in my career as far as the military, being a single father, putting myself through college, graduating with honors, and I could keep going. But I received a tremendous amount of hate here across the board personally for the things that, I guess, I do. It’s all over the board.”
“It’s from the fact that this is interracial, because I’ve had guys saying the n-word to me and, ‘I’m going to kill you, we’re going to get you when you come down south.’ I just kind of sit back and laugh about it. I’ve even experienced some people that are in the business of wrestling—tweeting things and posting pictures, and I just sit back and laugh. A lot of times we feel that the person being hated on or being bullied should be a frail person. But now you take somebody like myself and Lana, who is a gorgeous woman, and we don’t look like the typical people that are bullied. I’m glad I have thick skin. Because if I didn’t have thick skin, some of the things that I’ve had to experience would be very difficult to take.”
Rusev:
“I think he’s incredible. Everything that’s going on has pumped him up a lot more, too. In-ring, it’s been phenomenal working with him. Looking through the roster, I look for people I actually want to challenge. When I started out in the business, I looked for people ready to fight. Some of the people that I started out with in the business, like Finlay, Booker, JBL, Big Show, it was a fight every day. The good thing is, I can get that back with Rusev.”
“Some of the guys that I go out there in the ring with, you can’t really beat them up that bad because they’ll fall apart. But somebody like Rusev, he can go. That’s why I’m excited about having more matches with him. He wants to fight, and I’m ready to fight. That’s all I’ve done my entire life.”