Bobby Lashley spoke on the After The Bell podcast, hosted by Corey Graves, about the mentality of wrestlers today versus back when he first started. He explains that he believes fans tend to support wrestlers who are more active on social media because they engage more. He doesn’t think his personality is the “babyface” model that WWE originally envisioned him to be, and he attributes a lot of that to his lack of engagement on social media.
“I think today’s society is different from then. Then, wrestling was completely different,” Lashley noted. “Wrestling was more of the tough guys, the fighters, the brawlers. I was with JBL, Finlay, Booker [T], Big Show, Umaga, Hardcore Holly – all these guys are guys that I had to start out with. And those guys all had stories of being a little bit mean to the new guys, but they weren’t so much mean to me. But at the same time, when I look back at it, I said, maybe they were, and I just didn’t understand because I thought it was more of a fight. So, I was like, I’ll fight. I think that’s how it was then.
“Now, it seems like this society and way things are are a little bit different. Before, I was definitely babyface. Coming in, they said, ‘oh, Bobby’s a babyface. Military this, that, and the other’ – all the stuff. But I think this society’s a little different. I think this society’s more of — I’m a heel. I think the guys that are more engaging with social media, the guys that are more vocal [and] the guys that are more, I guess, in touch with the crowd, the crowd kind of takes to them a little bit more. My generation is a little bit of an older generation. Social media wasn’t the biggest thing.
“So, I’m not so big on social media. I’m not tweeting and going back and forth with people all day, everyday. I do a little post on Instagram from time to time, but I have kids, so when I’m at home, I’m usually either training or hanging out with my kids. So, I’m kind of a different animal right now. So since I’m not so in touch with the crowd via social media, I think that just naturally makes me a heel.”
