Bobby Lashley did an interview with DAZN to promote Sunday’s WWE Survivor Series PPV event. Here are the highlights:
DAZN: What did it mean to you to get in the ring with Big E for WWE’s richest prize and have two African-American guys competing for the WWE Championship?
“I think it was phenomenally. It’s what I try to say when people ask me about the race thing. The biggest thing for me is I like to make sure that it’s a norm. I want to make all these things the norm. Like when I won the title, they were like, ‘Oh, you’re the third African-American, you’re the third black champion, and then Big E was the fourth’.
I’m like, ‘We don’t need to put that next to it anymore. It’s just the norm’. I want it to get to the norm with anyone. We don’t want to say, ‘You’re the second African-American, you’re the second Mexican, you’re the second this’. It’s not even about that anymore. I think it’s just making it a norm. Everybody gets the opportunity to win that title. We put in the work. You do the things you have to do. You hustle, and you have the opportunity to win it, and it’s no asterisk by your name. It’s just here’s the guy. Here’s the guy who it is now. I’m glad that we broke those barriers and started to make this a norm. But ultimately, I just wanted to be, ‘Here’s your champion, period’.”
DAZN: You look at what’s going on right now in sports entertainment, and you really couldn’t ask for anymore. There was a little bit of everything for everybody. WWE is the leader, and they’re on top. But you look at other places, and everyone seems like they’re doing pretty well. What do you make of the overall landscape right now in sports entertainment?
“I think it’s great right now. I think there’s a lot of competition. I think we’re doing some big things, and we’re moving into a big season for us, with some big news coming around. I think that it’s a good time to be a wrestling fan, and it’s a good time for a wrestler with a good time to step up for everyone. Everybody always says competition is good. I don’t think really we have any serious competition. But the fans like it, the fans like the fact that there are other things going on that forces us to step up.”