Tag: Bobby Lashley

  • MVP Says Triple H Ignoring Him And Bobby Lashley Led To WWE Exit

    MVP Says Triple H Ignoring Him And Bobby Lashley Led To WWE Exit

    Former WWE Superstar MVP, who now is a prominent part of the AEW Roster, did not hold back while discussing the circumstances surrounding his departure from WWE.

    MVP is claiming that repeated attempts to communicate with Paul Levesque ultimately pushed both himself and Bobby Lashley toward leaving the company. Speaking on Marking Out with MVP & Dwayne Swayze, MVP detailed growing frustrations behind the scenes, specifically pointing to what he described as a lack of communication from WWE management.

    “I don’t like Triple H, I think he’s a coward and a liar. There were multiple times I tried to talk to Triple H, and he would always say, ‘I’ll get with you in a little bit.’”

    MVP went on to explain that Lashley also struggled to get direct answers regarding his future in WWE despite multiple attempts to speak with WWE’s Chief Content Officer.

    “Bobby couldn’t get Triple H on the phone. Triple H wouldn’t give Bobby any one on one time,” MVP continued. “Bobby wanted to talk to Triple H about, ‘Hey, what’s my direction? What am I doing here?’ But Triple H always had something come up.”

    According to MVP, the lack of communication eventually led him to encourage Lashley and fellow former WWE Superstar Shelton Benjamin to consider leaving WWE together and making the jump to AEW.

    “So I told Bobby while we were sitting in catering, ‘Dog, I’m not going to re-sign. Don’t re-sign either. You, me, and Shelton should go to AEW. Let’s go.’”

    MVP said he continued pushing the idea consistently until Lashley eventually agreed that their futures within WWE no longer appeared promising.

    “I was in Bobby’s ear every week. ‘Bobby, let’s go, dog. Let’s get Shelton and head across the street.’ It finally got to the point where Bobby was like, ‘Yeah, you’re right. There’s no future here for us.’”

    MVP also pushed back against speculation that WWE made the decision to move on from the group, stating clearly that the departures came down to their own choice not to remain with the company.

    “So my contract ran out. Bobby’s contract ran out. We chose not to re-sign. Contrary to what some people might say, that was our decision.”

    The comments add another layer to the ongoing discussion surrounding talent relations and communication within WWE under the current regime, while also shedding more light on how close-knit the bond remains between MVP, Lashley, and Benjamin following their time together as part of The Hurt Business.

    You can watch the entire episode of Marking Out with MVP & Dwayne Swayze below.

    (Please credit Bodyslam.net when using the quotes above.)

  • The 5 Greatest Crossover Athletes Who Competed in Both Pro Wrestling and Combat Sports

    The 5 Greatest Crossover Athletes Who Competed in Both Pro Wrestling and Combat Sports

    Some athletes pick a lane and stay in it. These five ignored the lane entirely. Each stepped into the scripted chaos of pro wrestling and the genuine danger of a combat sports cage, and performed at the top of both. Here’s who made it work.

    Brock Lesnar: The Blueprint for Crossover Dominance

    No one pulled off the wrestling-to-MMA switch with the same velocity as Brock Lesnar. He won the UFC Heavyweight Championship in just his fourth professional fight, 277 days after his UFC debut. For context, that’s less time than some fighters spend ranked in the top 15 without sniffing a title shot. Before that: NCAA Division I wrestling champion in 2000 with a 33–0 season, then WWE Champion at 25, the youngest ever at that point.

    The crossover is rare enough that analysts still track it — and fans following nepali casino app-style betting markets know dual-sport athletes generate outsized public interest well beyond pure MMA circles. Lesnar defended the UFC title twice: a TKO revenge win over Frank Mir at UFC 100 and a submission of Shane Carwin at UFC 116. His record finished 5–3, though his 2016 win over Mark Hunt was overturned to a no-contest after a failed drug test.

    His peak MMA run:

    • 2008: UFC debut loss to Frank Mir via kneebar
    • 2008: Defeated Randy Couture at UFC 91 to win the UFC Heavyweight Championship
    • 2009: Submitted Mir in rematch at UFC 100
    • 2010: Survived Carwin’s first-round barrage, won by submission

    Ken Shamrock: The Man Who Was Actually Dangerous

    Before Lesnar made the jump look cool, Ken Shamrock made it look credible. He moved between wrestling and MMA before anyone had a framework for what that meant. ABC News called him “The World’s Most Dangerous Man” in the mid-1990s — either brilliant marketing or a genuine warning label, depending on the night.

    Shamrock became the first UFC Superfight Champion by defeating Dan Severn at UFC 6, founded the Lion’s Den camp, and won the King of Pancrase title in Japan, where results were real. His WWE Attitude Era run included the Intercontinental Championship and feuds with The Rock and The Undertaker. He’s an inaugural UFC Hall of Fame inductee, which is the sport’s way of saying he was there before there was even a sport. Fans who use Mel Bet for combat sports wagering will recognize Shamrock as one of MMA’s original marquee names.

    Ronda Rousey: The One Who Restructured Both Industries

    Rousey didn’t just cross over; she reshaped each side in sequence. She won judo bronze at the 2008 Olympics, the first American woman to medal in the sport at that level. She became Strikeforce Women’s Bantamweight Champion before the UFC even had a women’s division. When it created one, Rousey was its first champion.

    Six title defenses followed. Five were first-round finishes. Three came in under a minute. She retired from MMA at 12–2, then joined WWE in 2018:

    • Raw Women’s Championship at SummerSlam 2018
    • Headlined Evolution, WWE’s first all-women’s pay-per-view
    • SmackDown Women’s Championship twice after returning in 2022
    • Only woman to hold a championship in both the UFC and WWE

    She’s also the only woman to headline a pay-per-view in both companies. Nobody else can say that.

    Bobby Lashley: The Least-Discussed Crossover Success

    Lashley doesn’t get the attention Lesnar does, partly because he competed in smaller promotions. That undersells his record. A three-time NAIA Wrestling Champion, he went 15–2 in MMA, primarily in Bellator. His debut lasted 41 seconds. He built his fight career on the same amateur wrestling base as Lesnar — just without the UFC platform behind it.

    His WWE résumé stands on its own: ECW Champion, multiple WWE Championship reigns, top-of-card status through the 2020s. Maintaining credibility in both worlds, without the spotlight, is harder than it looks.

    Dan Severn: The Original

    Severn did something in 1995 nobody had done before: held an MMA championship and a pro wrestling championship simultaneously. He won UFC 5 in April 1995 while holding the NWA World Heavyweight Championship — two belts, two different sports, one weekend. He later took the UFC Superfight Championship from Ken Shamrock.

    Career MMA record: 101 wins, 19 losses, 7 draws. That volume is unusual even for fighters who did nothing else. Severn competed when UFC rules were barely formed and weight classes didn’t exist. His cage performances proved something the combat sports world hadn’t accepted yet — elite amateur wrestlers were genuinely dangerous, not just athletic curiosities.

    Most fighters master one world. These five treated the second one as a reasonable next project.