Bobby Lashley Should Be On SmackDown

Too much of a good thing usually turns it worse over time. Moderation is key, especially when it comes to effective storytelling — that’s why Michael Cole constantly vomiting WWE buzzwords is such a detriment to the product.

This is an issue that Monday Night Raw is going to face in the near future if they aren’t there already. That’s because there are simply too many big men trying to carve out a niche on the show. Sure, they have three hours to do so, but time isn’t the problem.

The issue is that there are only so many creative and clever ways to book monsters. This is why Big Show wasn’t one of the most dominant forces in professional sports entertainment history. Wrestlers are generally only as good as the stories they are enabled to tell, and the red brand is rapidly going to run out of real estate when it comes to their heavyweights.

Bobby Lashley was a fantastic addition to the show, and he’s been popping crowds with regularity since his surprise return during the Raw after WrestleMania. Eventually, though, he’ll need to be involved in an actual feud, and it’s unclear who is left for him to square off with; especially since this is technically WWE’s “down season.”

How do you book Lashley when you have Brock Lesnar occupying the space of Legit UFC Fighter Turned Pro Wrestler on the show? What kind of spots can you give him to flash his strength when Braun Strowman is already flipping ambulances and tearing down lightning structures with a grappling hook?

It’d even be tough to build Lashley as a Superman-type character who can withstand a lot of punishment because that’s how they are trying to get Roman Reigns over. It’s not working and hasn’t been working for the better part of the last year, but that hasn’t stopped Vince McMahon from trying to make it click yet.

All of this has us wondering how the WWE will manage to use Lashley to the best of his capabilities. He was green during his last go-around with the company but has since turned himself into a rock solid performer in the ring. A feud with Lesnar might be in the cards eventually, but how do we get there?

Recommended Reading: Can The Undisputed Era Be WWE’s Best Faction?

Lashley won’t go over on Strowman because the latter has been billed as an unstoppable force for months. Here’s a guy who creative decided to put over one of the most decorated tag teams in recent memory in The Bar… and they let him do it with a literal child in his corner.

Now the Monster Among Men simply can’t be stopped, and he’s going to continue to move mountains — and bury the rest of the roster in the process — on his way to the top of the heap. Strowman has been built to the point where not even a massive beatdown at the hands of Lashley wouldn’t be viewed as a step back. Just think about all of the destruction Strowman has caused and taken, and he’s continued to press forward.

There’s the possibility that Lashley will turn on Strowman at Backlash — our speculation, not an actual rumor — but there’s virtually no chance he’d win that feud. He’d simply be another bug for Strowman to squash. How is that fun? We can hear Cole now, talking about how he’s never seen Lashley manhandled like this, etc, etc, etc.

Spare us.

JUST ANNOUNCED: @BraunStrowman & @fightbobby will square off against @FightOwensFight & @SamiZayn at #WWEBacklash! #RAW pic.twitter.com/DDwLNjuzq2

— WWE (@WWE) May 1, 2018

Then there’s Lesnar, who just signed a mega-deal to stay with the WWE and rumors continue to fly about him returning to the UFC in the near future. It’s unclear when the Beast Incarnate will drop the Universal Title, but odds are good that it’ll be Reigns taking the belt from him.

Not Lashley.

So what does that leave for the 41-year-old? A program with Drew McIntyre could be lights out but probably wouldn’t do either potential title contender much good. Someone would have to lose, and someone would have to topple down the card for a while as a result.

How many times can the WWE feed Kevin Owens to a larger opponent before it becomes predictable? KO surprisingly ate the pin in Montreal this past Monday night, and he hasn’t had a great run since losing the Universal Title to Goldberg at Fastlane in a joke of a squash match.

An intriguing possibility is a feud with Jason Jordan, but how much mileage would a Jordan-Lashley program have while Lesnar, Strowman and Reigns are figuratively and literally taking all of the big man spots?

Which leads us to the conclusion that it was a bit of a miscalculation by the WWE to bring Lashley back as a member of the Raw roster. McMahon will continue to pile as much talent onto the “A show” as he can, but all the wrestling skill in the world doesn’t matter when there aren’t good stories to be told.

And right now, there doesn’t appear to be a clear or interesting path forward for Lashley on Monday nights.

Follow @theCHAIRSHOTcom on Twitter to keep up with all the latest wrestling news, opinions and more!