Franklin Roberto a.k.a Bobby Lashley was born 16th of July, 1976. A former professional wrestler, an American Mixed Martial artist, actor and former collegiate amateur wrestler, Lashley was very widely popular in the World Wrestling Entertainment. During his time as a professional wrestler in the WWE he was a two-time ECW world champion and also one-time United State Champion.

He attended Missouri Valley College and at that time between 1996 and 1998 he won three national college amateur wrestling championship and was fourth in 1995. Between 1997 and 1998 he was the National Wrestling Champion of National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. He continued wrestling even after he joined the US army. He however endured a knee injury at a bank when a robbery occurred there. At that time he was training and preparing for the 2003 Olympic Games. Because of the injury he ended the Olympic plans and later went into pro wrestling.

Professional Wrestling in the WWE

Lashley started his professional wrestling in November 2004 where he signed a contract with the World Wrestling Entertainment. He was however assigned to a development territory the Ohio Valley Wrestling, where he was nicknamed as Blaster Lashley. He was an associate of Bolin Services stable together with Ken Doane and Mike Mondo. The Bolin Services began crumbling after Bobby Lashley refused helping Doane to win his matches. This made him to turn face and thereby going the name Bobby Lashley.

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He made an appearance in the mid-2005 in four live events, fighting in dark matches for SmackDown and Raw brands. September 23th, 2005, he made a televised WWE first appearance as a face on SmackDown. His first match was against Simon Dean and he defeated Dean and later got a pay-per-view entrance at No Mercy. Once again he defeated Dean and went on defeating several superstars in Raw and SmackDown.

A feud began between John Bradshaw Layfield and Lashley led to a fight at No Way Out. This was first loss for Lashley in a singles competition as result of Finlay’s interference. Lashley developed a quarrel with Finlay resulting to a Lumberjack match; however Finlay won the match after making use of a shillelagh.

Lashley lost the ECW championship because of his draft from ECW brand to Raw on June 11. After winning “Beat the Clock” fight he became number one for the WWE championship which John Cena was the title holder. He was defeated by Cena and both wrestlers shook hands as a sign of respect for each other.

Lashley got injured after Kennedy used ring steps to hit his shoulders and this was his final appearance at WWE. He was released by WWE from his contract on 4th of February, 2008.

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Lashley debuted in the Mixed Fighting Alliance on the 13th of December, 2008 where he won Joshua Franklin through a technical Knockout in just 41 seconds in the first round.

Lashley’s daughter was born in 2005 and Lashley dated Kristal Marshall (WWE Diva). The two had a son, Myles. Lashley has wrestled both in StrikeForce, Shark Fights and Titan Fighting Championship.