Athletes - Franklin Lashley

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	Athletes - Franklin Lashley

Franklin Roberto (Bobby) Lashley (born July 16, 1976 in Kansas City, Kansas) is an American professional wrestler, currently performing for World Wrestling Entertainment on its SmackDown! brand, also known simply as Lashley. He is known for his suplexes most notably his versions of the belly to belly suplex.

Career

In the beginning

Lashley attended Missouri Valley College, where he won three national wrestling championships between 1996 and 1998, placing fourth in 1995. Throughout 1997 and 1998 he was the NAIA National Wrestling Champion, competing at the weight of 177 pounds (80 kilograms). Lashley later joined the United States Army, where he continued to wrestle.

In November 2003, Lashley signed a developmental contract with World Wrestling Entertainment and was assigned to its farm federation, Ohio Valley Wrestling. While in OVW, Lashley was known as Blaster Lashley, and was a member of the Bolin Services stable along with Mike Mondo, and Ken Doane. In mid-2005 Lashley appeared at four live events, wrestling in dark matches for both the RAW and SmackDown! brands.

World Wrestling Entertainment

On September 23, 2005, Lashley made his televised WWE debut on SmackDown! under the name Bobby Lashley. Lashley was introduced as a three-time National Amateur Wrestling Champion, four-time All-American, a two-time Armed Forces Champion and a 2002 Silver Medalist at the Military World Championship. In his first match, he squashed Simon Dean. Lashley would go on to make his pay-per-view debut on October 9, 2005, at No Mercy 2005, where he once again defeated Dean.

Lashley went on to feud briefly with Nunzio and Vito. On the November 11 episode of SmackDown!, Lashley defeated Orlando Jordan in a qualifying match for a place in Team SmackDown! at the 2005 Survivor Series pay-per-view on November 27 where he was the first to be eliminated.

On January 6, 2006 Lashley became the first named participant from SmackDown! to be entered into that years Royal Rumble. At the Royal Rumble on January 29 in Miami, Florida, Lashley would be the 8th wrestler to enter the match, but would be eliminated quite early by RAWs World Tag Team Champions Big Show
and Kane
.

Since his Smackdown debut, many fans have referred to Lashley as "Black Lesnar", due to his similarities in look and style of wrestling to former WWE superstar Brock Lesnar
.

After this, Lashley would go on to feud with John "Bradshaw" Layfield
. On the February 10 edition of SmackDown!, Lashley would challenge JBL to a match at No Way Out 2006 on February 19, 2006. Jillian Hall
accepted the match on JBL's behalf. On the last edition of SmackDown!

Lashley who had been undefeated in singles competition since his first appearance on SmackDown! until No Way Out when he was defeated by JBL, with a little help from Finlay. Lashley, along with Rey Mysterio
, and Chris Benoit, had successfully defeated the team of Finlay, JBL, and Randy Orton
in a 6-man tag team match on the next SmackDown!.

On March 3, 2006, Lashley faced off against Finlay in their first singles match against each other. The match was thrown out when both men picked up a chair and tried to hit each other with them. After the match, both men would continue brawling until security and officials were able to break up the pair. The pair would continue there brawling over the next couple of weeks with one match (on March 10th) never officially getting started as a result of their brawling before they both made it into the ring. The brawling continued through the parking lot, where Finlay would hit Lashley with a steel pipe. Lashley retaliated by hitting Finlay's head against a car eight times. Lashley then put Finlay on top of a car before fliping it over, nearly crushing Finlay.

The match of March 10th was supposed to be for a spot in WrestleMania 22's "Money in the Bank ladder match" so on the next SmackDown! both men would meet again in a Lumberjack match, which is a match where wrestlers surround the ring, keeping the competitors inside. This match would see Finlay defeat Lashley for the spot in the Money in the Bank Ladder Match, although the lumberjacks landed a few cheap shots on Lashley, and Finlay used his shillelagh to pick up the win.
[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Franklin Lashley ]

Some related entries: Cedric Ceballos | W. Averell Harriman | Jody Davis | Nick Johnson | Ed Carpenter | Jim Abbott | Elmer Flick | Cedrick Wilson | Me'Lisa Barber | Tarik Glenn | Billy Paultz
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