Lashley Beats Lesnar As Heyman Rejoins Reigns

Bobby Lashley defeated Brock Lesnar at the 2022 WWE Royal Rumble after Roman Reigns and Paul Heyman cost Lesnar the WWE Championship.

Following a ref bump from an F5, Reigns speared Lesnar, at which point Paul Heyman handed the WWE Championship to Roman Reigns. Reigns used the belt to knock out Lesnar, leading to Lashley’s biggest win.

Brock Lesnar and Bobby Lashley was a dream match years in the making. Lashley himself has fielded countless questions about a dream match against Lesnar. In November, Lashley admitted the clock was running out on the superfight during an interview with iHeart Radio’s Josh Martinez (h/t Cagesidseats.com).

“I’m always prepared. I’m in my final run. I think I have a few years left, but I’m open for anything,” said Lashley.

“I mean I train, I’m always in shape, I’m always ready to go. So it’s never something where you have to call me up and then you’ve got to wait months or weeks or anything like that. I’m ready to go right now.”

The Lashley-Lesnar dream match may have never happened had it not been for a last-second change to the WWE Day 1 pay-per-view, where a previously scheduled match between Lesnar and Roman Reigns was scrapped due to Reigns contracting COVID-19. As a result, Lesnar was vaulted into a Fatal 5-Way for the WWE Championship, where his first encounter with Lashley would finally commence.

Despite Lesnar winning the match—and the WWE Championship—Lashley speared Lesnar multiple times, trapped The Beast in the Hurt Lock and was the only combatant not to take the F-5.

After nearly two decades, the writing was finally on the wall for a Lashley-Lesnar dream match. With Lashley’s dream now a reality, he was more than ready for the moment.

“I think everybody else wanted it to happen, but until it’s actually official it was kind of one of those things like: ‘Are they going to take this away? Is this going to be taken away?” said Lashley to Joseph Staszewski of the New York Post.

“And then when it happened, it was like ‘Wait a minute, it’s real now.’”

Bobby Lashley’s late-career surge continues with his second WWE Championship win, this time over his dream opponent. Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania remains all but guaranteed.