Montez Ford reflects on working with Bobby Lashley.
The Street Profits (Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins) joined forces with Bobby Lashley in the summer of 2023, and they had a run together as The Pride. B-Fab later joined the group, and they scored a win against The Final Testament at WWE WrestleMania XL. However, their momentum stalled, as Lashley was absent from television for a few months before he left WWE in August. He then made his AEW debut at AEW Fright Night Dynamite on October 30th.
Speaking with Lewis Browning for Mail Sport, Montez Ford looked back on the Street Profits' run with Bobby Lashley. He recalled how fans rejected the Street Profits being presented as heels. Ford then noted that anything can happen in wrestling, and he said he is doing his best to move forward now that Lashley has left the company. He also noted that the group's momentum stopped after WWE WrestleMania XL.
"I'm glad with what we had for the short period of time, B-Fab and the All Mighty when he was here. But what I took from that lesson is anything can happen, anything can transition, anybody can leave, anybody can just depart at any time. You kind of just have to pick up whatever's left and just run with it. That's exactly what I'm doing right now. When all of those things were happening, we were very, very excited, because he (Lashley) was somebody we looked up to, somebody I watched as a kid, and now I'm being paired with him, and he's being my mentor, and he's ushering us in this new chapter of The Street Profits. All these things are running, we have a WrestleMania win, and then boom, it just stops. It's been this constant stop and go and stop and go and stop and go with the Profits where we'll get momentum and then the momentum will stop, then momentum will start again, and the momentum will stop. For us, that's frustrating, because it's hard to get behind a team whose momentum starts and then it shifts again," Ford said.
Ford continued to share his thoughts on Lashley's departure by noting that, as a member of a group, you had to be prepared for anything to happen, as others may not have the same mindset regarding their goals in the company.
"This is a business at the end of the day. You can get into a faction. I have aspirations and passions and things I want to do, but if the other people that I'm attached to don't have the same mentality, then it can fail. They can be having dreams or aspirations of being champion, or leaving or not renewing contracts or doing whatever else it is, but it's not the same mindset of whatever I have going on. So I always take it as whatever you're involved with just be prepared for it to shift, because everyone may not have the same mindset as you have. It's like doing a group project at school. Everyone's on the same page, but there's always the one that may have different visions or a different route that they want to go, and you either have to reach a compromise and work it out together, where you reach a medium, or you all go your separate ways and you do what best works for yourself," Ford said.
Ford then emphasized that he was focused on getting back on track alongside Dawkins, as he wants to become successful again, win some titles, and make people take them seriously.
Lashley recently said that they were trying to get Bianca Belair in the group with him and the Street Profits. Check out his comments here.
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