Bobby Lashley Denies He Left WWE in 2008 Over Pay Issues, How He’s Changed Since Then

Bobby Lashley recently addressed long-standing rumors that he left WWE in 2008 over a pay dispute. Interviewer RainmakerNYC on YouTube caught up with Lashley for a quick interview and asked about the rumor that his exit from the company was over a dispute about his pay, which he denied. You can see the highlights below:

On the biggest difference in him since his last WWE run: “I’m older. [laughs] No, older, wiser — I mean, there’s there’s a little bit of everything. There’s a different kind of training that you have when you’re a little bit of an older athlete. You know, I take care of myself a little bit more, I have different — just different thoughts. Before when I was younger, it was like, yeah, early lifestyle, money you run around doing a whole bunch of different things. Now, I’m more of a businessman.”

On if he originally left WWE over a pay issue: “No, that’s 100 percent not true. I was making a tremendous amount of money then. There was other issues and other things going on. It was an opportunity for me to go fight, and legitimize my character a little bit. So I fought for eight years. Fought under [Scott] Coker and Bellator, and Strikeforce, and everything else. And now coming back, I take all that with me and that just kinda legitimizes my character a little more.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit RainmakerNYC with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.