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Former ECW champion Bobby Lashley, who featured prominently in WWE storylines just over a year ago, prior to a career-interrupting injury, has returned to the pro ring, but not for WWE. Instead, Lashley made an appearance recently at Booker T’s PWA promotion out of Houston; word is, he only made an appearance and did not wrestle in the show.

Beyond that, babydolls, word on the street has it that Lashley is considering following in the footsteps of Ken Shamrock and Brock Lesnar and turning to ultimate fighting/MMA, rather than going back to pro wrestling. If so, down the road, it would be a nice card to see Lesnar and Lashley hook up in the MMA ring.

The feud between John Cena and Bobby Lashley is just getting started. The two men put in an impressive effort at the Great American Bash main event, which made the PPV memorable, even though the match was kept to an all-too-brief 15 minutes.

Choosing this route is definitely a wise choice by WWE. Cena could not have kept staving off the Great Khali indefinitely between now and next spring’s WrestleMania if they had stayed on Raw together. Khali is too over as a monster big man to waste him as a jobber the way WWE did with The Big Show.

Using the WWE Draft to move Khali over to Smackdown gives Khali time to win a lot and build his fearsome rep before an ultimate showdown with Cena … who I believe MUST be his ultimate showdown partner.

Meanwhile, Cena could use a legitimate threat to his dominance who’s not an indefatigable monster, and Lashley is just the guy to pull it off, no matter how many commercials for diet pills drive away viewers in the wake of the Benoit tragedy.

Here’s how I would play things out between now and WrestleMania.

The rubber match between Lashley and Cena is almost assured for SummerSlam, but it’s time to freshen up a Cena feud by allowing a legit contender to win and hold the title for a while. Aside from WrestleMania, there’s no better place and time than at SummerSlam for the title to change hands. Give Lashley his first WWE Title run with an upset victory over Cena at SummerSlam.

Of course, that would trigger another rematch for September, and I see that one as a No-DQ Last Man Standing match, something long and harsh that would take a toll off both men. Have Cena come close to recapturing the title, but then introduce an interference angle by having World Title champion (from SmackDown) the Great Khali interfere in the match (without penalty, since it’s a No-DQ match) by putting Cena down and Lashley on top of him.

If not the Great Khali, then perhaps Triple H could fill this roll; he’s returning and the man’s always been at his best as a full-on heel. Sorry, but the De-Generation X revival was a pure dud.

This could lead to a “Lashley retains, and Cena’s out for a while” result that would accomplish three important things:

1) It would provide Cena some much-needed time off to shed the “we’re getting tired of him winning all the time” boos he’s been receiving for at least the last six months at Live Event matches. Cena could use the time to perhaps do another movie, relax and spend time with family. It would give fans something fresh so that when Cena returns, he feels fresh to the audience and welcomed back by Cena-weary fans.

2) It would give Lashley a chance to build his rep, perhaps by feuding with Triple H through Survivor Series.

3) Bring Cena back in time to win the title shot of his choice at the Royal Rumble. Shut out of a title shot under storyline, Cena could win the Rumble to get a shot at either Khali or Lashley. Have him choose Khali. Then have Cena somehow stumble into a Fatal Four-Way at the final PPV prior to WrestleMania, winning back the title from Lashley, perhaps by beating one of the other men involved in the match… let’s say, Triple-H or Mr. Kennedy. That would make Cena the WWE champ again, with a WrestleMania match against Khali that, through storyline, could be made into a WWE Title/World Title reunification match. One could even toss the ECW title into the mix, just for kicks, and whoever wins would become the first WWE World Champion, the first undisputed title holder since Chris Jericho.

That undisputed champion, for my money, would have to be John Cena.

I realize that from a WWE perspective, putting the ECW belt on Vince McMahon was a classic retread of the Stone Cold Steve Austin storyline template: rebellious employee faces off with evil owner. But that formula is wearing a bit thin, carrying the luggage of overuse in recent years, and while WWE’s defenders may say it was all about pushing ECW’s Bobby Lashley as much as possible, the backlash of the move certainly carried with it substantial risks related to alienating ECW lovers.

ECW has been the subject of a McMahon-centric makeover ever since ECW creator Paul Heyman was bounced from WWE last December, but what such a Vince-centric storyline really needed was an opposing force manipulating from behind the scenes who could go toe-to-toe with Vince. That’s right: ECW needs Heyman to really sell this “ECW Originals vs. The New Breed” storyline that has become central to each Tuesday night broadcast on SciFi.

The New Breed has Vince pulling the strings, which is fine, but who is the unmovable object to Vince’s irresistible force? Bringing Heyman back would take this storyline to the next level, and open of the possibility of an “ECW Walkout” in which ECW seems to go independent again, under Heyman’s leadership, even though it would be in storyline only.

Something like that is needed to fix the current ECW, which in the months since Heyman’s ouster has become just another identity-less WWE brand, not distinguishably different from Raw or Smackdown, except that the show’s an hour shorter.

Heck, even One Night Stand has become a multi-brand PPV event. Sure, the belt was put back on Lashley, but anyone who think’s McMahon’s reign is over is fooling only themselves. Yawn.

I think ECW is taking over WWE Raw. Ever since before WrestleMania, when WWE started promoting the billionaire hair match feud between Vince McMahon and Donald Trump, with ECW Champion Bobby Lashley and Umaga as the stand-ins for the billionaires, Lashley has been getting more and more face-time on RAW than on ECW On SciFi, where he belongs.

Perhaps Lashley has massive student loan debt and needs to look into school loan consolidation to get out of hock, but his amount of exposure on Raw reached ridiculous proportions that make you wonder who he owes that he’s trying to pay off with all this overtime pay.

This week Lashley had to “run the gauntlet” on Raw to get the right to face Vinnie Mac one-on-one at the One Night Stand PPV and earn the ECW Title back. (Lashley lost it to McMahon a couple PPVs ago, after WrestleMania.) That resulted in Lashley wrestling four opponents, including Chris Masters, Big Viz, Umaga and Shane McMahon, needing to win all four to get his one-on-one with Vinnie Mac.

As a McMahon-Austin redeux, the McMahon-Lashley feud is entertaining enough, I suppose, but Lashley’s spending more time on Raw than on ECW, and it’s hurting the ECW program. Heck, One Night Stand used to be an ECW-only, or at least ECW vs. WWE PPV event, but this year it is just another PPV with Raw and Smackdown matches that have no connection to the ECW brand, other than all the matches at One Night Stand will be extreme rules matches.

Someone get on the phone and find a way to get Paul Heyman back on the WWE payroll so he can get ECW back on track, OK? Thank you.

As much of a Mick Foley fan as I am, I was relieved during last week’s WWE Raw to find out that Foley was a swerve and that the real guest referee for the “Battle of the Billionaires” is Stone Cold Steve Austin. It’s always good to see Stone Cold in the ring, even if his main eventing, title holding days are well behind him.

I must admit, though, that despite it being corny and predictable and silly, without the Battle of the Billionaires angle, the WrestleMania 23 match between ECW Champ Bobby Lashley and big-man Umaga would be such a snorefest match, it could be sponsored by any company that makes sleeper sofas. With the angle, it’s more interesting if only because we all know there’s no way Donald Trump would ever agree to be part of something where he’d get his head shaved, so it’ll be a hoot to tune in and watch Trump shave McMahon bald.

Even after all these years of playing the evil owner, Vince McMahon still knows what it means to, “give the people what they want.” And if Vince complains about being bald, we all know Stone Cold will be there to deliver the final insult: a Stone Cold stunner!

Even though WWE is doing everything right in terms of promoting their new ECW champion, Bobby Lashley, it has to be said: Lashley as champion is about as exciting as butter on toast.

It’s not Lashley’s fault, per se. He’s just not that electrifying a personality. At least not yet. At the moment, he’s just a generic champion with nothing that makes him stand out. Which makes his championship reign pretty unappetizing. So unappetizing you’d think someone has slipped a dose of Tenuate into your evening meal.

Now, Lashley can wrestle a solid match and his victory at December to Dismember was the capper to a great elimination chamber match. And his ring work has been solid since taking the title. But without a more electrifying personality, he’ll go down in history as one of the less interesting ECW champions ever.

Personally, I think the belt would be far more intriguing wrapped around the waist of C.M. Punk or Elijah Burke. Lashley needs more of an on-screen character to really get over, and having the belt taken out of his hands via nefarious means and having him feud with the new title holder would be a step in the right direction.