Bobby Lashley

Franklin Roberto Lashley (born July 16, 1976) is an American professional wrestler and mixed martial artist.

He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown brand where he is the leader of The Pride stable.

He is an eight-time world champion, having been a two-time WWE Champion, two-time ECW World Champion, and four-time TNA World Heavyweight Champion.

Lashley is also known for his mixed martial arts (MMA) career in Bellator MMA and Strikeforce.

Franklin Roberto Lashley was born in Junction City, Kansas, on July 16, 1976, the son of a U.S. Army drill sergeant.

Lashley is of Panamanian descent through his mother.

He grew up in a single parent household with a mother who barely spoke English and struggled to secure a good job.

He attended Missouri Valley College, where he was the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) National Wrestling Champion in the 177 lbs category in 1996, 1997, and 1998, and graduated in 1999 with a bachelor's degree in human-service agency management and recreation administration.

He followed his father into the United States Army after college, and continued to compete in amateur wrestling in the Army's World Class Athlete Program.

During his three years in the Army, he won a gold and silver medal in the International Military Sports Council senior freestyle wrestling event.

In 2003, while living and training in Colorado Springs with the goal of qualifying for Team USA to wrestle at the 2004 Olympic Games, Lashley witnessed a bank robbery and was forced to dive for cover to avoid gunfire; this resulted in a knee injury that required surgery, ending his amateur career.

Lashley debuted in WWE in 2005, appearing on the SmackDown brand where he became a one-time United States Champion.

After being drafted to the ECW brand the following year, Lashley became a two-time ECW World Champion.

In January 2005, Lashley made his debut for Ohio Valley Wrestling a WWE developmental territory working as Blaster Lashley.

In mid-2005, Lashley appeared at four live events for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), wrestling in dark matches for both Raw and SmackDown!.

On September 23, 2005, he made his televised debut as a face on SmackDown! under his real name, and was introduced as a three-time National Amateur Wrestling Champion, four-time All-American, two-time Armed Forces Champion, and a 2002 Silver Medalist at the Military World Championship.

In his first match, he defeated Simon Dean, whom he also defeated in his pay-per-view debut at No Mercy on October 9.

On the November 11 episode of SmackDown!, Lashley defeated Orlando Jordan in a qualifying match for a place on Team SmackDown!

at Survivor Series on November 27, where he was the first to be eliminated, but his team eventually won the match.

On January 6, 2006, Lashley became the first SmackDown!

wrestler to qualify for that year's Royal Rumble.

At the Royal Rumble on January 29, Lashley was the eighth wrestler to enter the match, in which he eliminated Sylvain, but was eliminated by the combination of Raw's then World Tag Team Champions Big Show and Kane.

Following the Royal Rumble, Lashley began a feud with John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL), leading up to a match at No Way Out on February 19, where Lashley suffered his first loss in singles competition, largely due to interference from Finlay.

This prompted a feud between Lashley and Finlay, which lasted throughout February and March, and it notably included a lumberjack match on the March 17 episode of SmackDown!, which Finlay won after using a shillelagh.

After winning a "Last Chance" battle royal on the March 24 episode of SmackDown! by lastly eliminating MNM, Lashley competed at his first WrestleMania (WrestleMania 22) in the Money in the Bank ladder match on April 2 – which was won by Rob Van Dam.

Lashley next entered SmackDown!'s 2006 King of the Ring tournament, making it to the finals as he defeated Mark Henry and Finlay.

During this time, he had a high-profile rivalry with company chairman Vince McMahon, which included representing Donald Trump in the "Battle of the Billionaires" at WrestleMania 23, before leaving the company in 2008.

He subsequently pursued a career in MMA and had his first professional fight in December 2008.

In 2009, Lashley began appearing in professional wrestling promotion TNA (later renamed to Impact), where he became a four-time TNA/Impact World Heavyweight Champion.

He was also a one-time X Division Champion and the final King of the Mountain Champion.

After amassing a career record of 10–2, he signed with Bellator MMA in 2014 where he won all five of his career bouts from 2014 to 2016.

He has three older sisters, one of whom is still on active service in the U.S. Air Force as of 2015.

The family occasionally moved from one military base to another.

While his father was stationed at Fort Riley in Kansas, Lashley attended Fort Riley Middle School, where he was introduced to amateur wrestling in seventh grade as an off-season alternative to football.

He later graduated from Junction City High School, where he continued to wrestle.

He has headlined multiple pay-per-view (PPV) events for WWE and TNA/Impact, including the 2016 edition of the latter's flagship event, Bound for Glory.

He is also one of the two wrestlers to have won the WWE, ECW, and TNA/Impact world championships, the other being Rob Van Dam.

Lashley is the only wrestler to have multiple reigns with the aforementioned championships.

After returning to WWE in 2018, he was assigned to the Raw brand, becoming a two-time Intercontinental Champion and winning a second and third United States Championship.

He then won the WWE Championship twice.