Bobby Lashley is the new WWE Champion. On this week’s episode on Monday Night Raw, the 44-year-old professional wrestler defeated The Miz to win the WWE Championship for the first time in his career. Lashley has won multiple titles in WWE since making his debut in 2005.
Lashley earned a title match after Miz made a deal with MVP at Elimination Chamber. Lashley and MVP are members of the wrestling group The Hurt Business with Raw Tag Team Champions Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin. At Elimination Chamber, MVP agreed to have Lashley take out then-WWE Champion Drew McIntyre after winning the Elimination Chamber match. That gave Miz the opportunity to cash in his Money in the Bank contract and beat McIntyre to win the title.
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In return, Miz had to give a title shot to Lashley, which happened on Raw. Earlier in the night, Miz and Lashley were set to square off, but when the match began, Miz took the title and ran off. He lost the match via count-out but kept his title. That led to Shane McMahon scheduling another title match at the end of the night, and if Miz didn’t defend the WWE Championship, he would be stripped of the title and Lashley would be crowned the new champ.
Before the second match, McMahon announced it would be a Lumberjack match, bringing out the entire Raw roster. From there, Lashley dominated Miz and won the WWE title in just three minutes. The win is big for Lashley as he’s been on a run during his second stint in WWE. He originally left the company in 2008 and spent time competing in MMA and wrestling for Impact. Lashley had success in both, earning 15 MMA victories in an eight-year span and becoming a four-time Impact World Heavyweight Champion.
“There’s no question in my mind whether I should be on top or not,” Lashley told Bleacher Report in a recent interview. “Some people already know it. You see Roman [Reigns] walk out there as the head of the table. He can’t even look down his chin is so high up. He has that confidence because he’s been in those matches with The Undertaker and Brock and all these different people.” Lashley is now looking to defend the title and main event WrestleMania in April.
