Prior to coming to AEW, Bobby Lashley had a lengthy and notable career in the WWE where he had several highlight moments with the company. None, perhaps, moved the pop culture barometer quite like his Wrestlemania 23 match alongside President Donald Trump.
“The Battle of the Billionaires” pitted Lashley, representing Trump, against Umaga, who represented Vince McMahon, and either Trump or McMahon would be shaved bald if their wrestler lost.
On a recent episode of Talk Is Jericho, Lashley talked about the match and shared what it was like working with Trump. “I didn’t know what was going on,” Lashley said. “Somebody pulled me in and they said, ‘Hey, we’re going to put you in this match. When I first came in, everything was so ‘Aww’ to me that I was riding such a high, traveling around the world. Then they told me that I’m going to be in this role, and I was like, ‘Huh?’ Then I sat back, and I remember when Umaga came by, he was like, ‘Uce, this is huge.’ I was like, ‘Really?’”
Lashley went on to say he met Trump’s daughter at an event in New York, and then he eventually met the next U.S. president himself. “I ended up meeting him, and we hit it off,” Lashley said. “He was cool. And what was cool, I try to tell people, when he came in he wasn’t trying to do Vince’s job. He wasn’t trying to do my job. He wasn’t trying to do Umaga’s job. He said, ‘What can I do to bring more light to this or make it work?’”
Lashley continued: “(Trump) said, ‘I’m not going to step on anybody’s toes, just let me know what I can do.’ We were like, ‘Well, you know so many people, get us out there.’ So that’s what he did. He put it in the press. He had so many people flying in to come see it. We used Trump Towers for one of the press conferences. He was pushing it big time. The whole time we were working together, he was super cool to me.” Jericho added: “He was just a dude that appreciated wrestling.”
Lashley even said that Trump casually tried to get him to talk to the Miss Universe pageant contestants who were also in attendance at Wrestlemania. “He had the pageant girls coming in there,” Lashley continued. “And he was like, ‘Bobby are you single?’ Yes. He was like, ‘There’s nice girls. They’re your age. You should try to talk with them.’ But he was doing it just like, he’s making conversation, and I mean, he was cool during it, and then when we went out there, it was a great show.”
The match, which also featured appearances by Shane McMahon and guest referee “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, was like an “all-star team,” according to Lashley. “And then they had this spot where Trump took down Vince,” Lashley said. “Then of course, Vince loved it. Everything was great through it, man. Then afterwards, (Trump) shaving (Vince’s) head, that was the hard part of it. Because during the match, so much went into it, emotions, adrenaline, everything. When we won the match, me and Trump are in the ring, and Austin is wanting to throw me a beer. I was like, ‘I gotta do this!’ They cut that out, cause I guess I’m not supposed to drink beer (laughs).”
“Then we looked up, and Vince was running (back up) the ramp. And Vince ain’t a little dude. He’s running up the ramp, and I’m looking around like,’Who’s going to get him?’ And I was like, ‘Oh that’s me.’ So I gotta run up there, grab him, pick him up (and bring him back to the ring). He’s dead-weighting me, and I got to bring him all the way back. Then I rolled him into the ring and we shaved his head.”
Listen to the full Lashley interview on Talk Is Jericho here.
