A near fatal banking incident gave Bobby Lashley a new lease on life, paying his dues and following through full time to reach his goals -- no matter what anyone thinks.

Lashley, a successful amateur and professional wrestler, is pursuing a new career with MMA while maintaining his checks and balances in his already established field -- pro wrestling, most notably now with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling.

It's a lot of work, but it's what the former WWE star wants, especially after his life changing experience.

Just before his WWE days, Lashley stood in line at a bank when a robbery occurred, with gun fire.

``I almost got shot,'' Lashley said. ``The guy was not more than 10 feet behind me. He shot at me, and I took a dive onto the ground. I don't know if it was divine intervention or what, but I just dove out of the way.

``I saw the surveillance camera pictures afterward. The guy was kind of nervous standing there shooting. You can see smoke coming out. After the incident happened, my heart was beating real hard. I was scared. I had to be. They were robbing a bank and shooting while they were doing it. So I thought I was done.

``After the incident, I went back to my house, thinking it was almost over. All this, everything that I had done was almost over. At that point, I was like I'm going to do what I want to do.

``Everybody may have this near death experience, and they start living life a different way. When I had that experience, there was so much more I wanted to do. I could have had it all taken away.

``Now, that I got this second chance, I'm going to do it.''

And he has been.

``Professional wrestling is something that I want to do. So I will be a professional wrestler, regardless of what people want, think or have feelings about, and I will be [MMA] fighting, because I want to fight.

``If you don't like it, ahhh, but if you do like it, support me.''

Lashley likes both, appreciating his opportunities, people and life. He takes his positive attitude into MMA and now TNA.

``TNA helps me out a lot,'' Lashley said. ``Professional wrestling is hard on the body, hard on the mind, but that's if you're going 250 days a year [like he did when he starred with WWE from 2005-08].

``We're working something out with TNA where I do get to give back to my pro wrestling fans, because pro wrestling really did a lot for me -- exposure wise, meeting a lot of great people, traveling the world and just the fans.''

Lashley is a people person.

``When I left pro wrestling, I felt kind of bad, because I left the wrestling fans who liked Bobby Lashley,'' he said. ``So I'm bringing them over to TNA. I'm going to do my thing in professional wrestling, and at the same time professional wrestling will help me train a little more for MMA.

``I'm traveling to and from Florida, so I'm able to pay those expenses. Not that I don't have money to do it, but why not make money so that you can do it all. A lot of people work full time jobs. I'm not going to work full time jobs. I'm working four days this month, and then I'm back training for 26 more days.''

Lashley has a passion for pro wrestling.

``Some people say, `Oh man, I can't believe he's going back to wrestling,''' he said. ``Yes, I'm going back to wrestling because I enjoy wrestling. I'm going to give back to the fans, and I'm going to help support my MMA career.''

Lashley is the first established pro wrestler to compete in the octagon while still battling in the squared circle for a prime-time wrestling company.

``There are so many similarities and at the same time there's adjusting,'' Lashley said. ``The adjusting is some of the MMA fans trying to understand and welcome it a little bit. I try to stay away from that. I try to just concentrate on my training.''

But it's there.

``For some reason you [amateur] wrestle for 18 years, and you take a couple of years off. You do pro wrestling and then comeback,'' he said. ``The [MMA people] forget the 18 years that I did [amateur] wrestle and all the awards I achieved.''

An accomplished amateur wrestler, Lashley starred at Missouri Valley College, winning two NAIA national titles (1997 and 1998). He also won three national amateur wrestling championships between 1996 and 1998.

Lashley continued to compete on the amateur level while serving in the U.S. Army -- twice winning the Armed Forces title.

``People think it's just Bobby the professional wrestler coming into fighting, so he has no credibility,'' Lashley said. ``I certainly proved people wrong. So there's kind of an adjustment there because you have to talk to the media, and you have to explain yourself.

``I always trained hard whether I was a professional wrestler or amateur wrestler or fighter. That part of an adjustment was no problem. I am a student of the game. I'm just trying to learn.''

Lashley is learning well. Not only is he undefeated at 4-0 in MMA, but he just inked a deal with TNA, cross promoting his MMA efforts through the climbing pro wrestling company, and he is preparing to open an American Top Team facility in the West where he lives in Denver.

Lashley trains in MMA at American Top Team in (South Florida) Coconut Creek. ATT instructors include Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist Ricardo Liborio and 1976 Olympic gold medalist boxer Howard Davis Jr.

ATT, one of the top teams in MMA, features professional fighters who have competed in Ultimate Fighting Championships, PRIDE Fighting Championships and K-1 and others.

``I talked to the owner, Dan Lambert, of American Top Team,'' said Lashley, while sporting an American Top Team T-shirt and hat.

``I travel back and forth. I have [two] kids in Denver so I try to stay there most of the time, but I come down here [Florida] to concentrate on my [MMA] training.''

TNA Wrestling conducts its TV tapings for TNA iMPACT (9 p.m. EST Thursdays on Spike TV) three times a month in Florida at Universal Studios Orlando and sometimes holds its monthly pay-per-views there. It's about a three-hour drive from Coconut Creek to Orlando.

``American Top Team has the best training facility in the world,'' Lashley said. ``So I talked to Dan Lambert about having an American Top Team in Denver. It will work out well because some of the guys are fighting in [Las] Vegas or California.

``Florida is great, and there are great fighters. It's at sea level, though. Everybody can come to Denver to deal with the altitude ahead of their fights. Thiago [Pitbull Alves], Mike Brown, all those guys when they have a fight in Vegas, they can stop by Denver for a couple of weeks. I'll have it all set up for them so they have the gym to do everything they need, get used to the altitude and them move and go beat people up.''

Lashley, who just turned 33 on July 16, has big plans.

``I've been talking to some people about going in with me on it,'' Lashley said, ``because I want it to be as strong as ATT in Coconut Creek.''

Lashley is strong and smart, and he knows the importance in adjusting to the altitude when training out West.

``When you go to Denver, it's dry air,'' Lashley said. ``In Florida, I sweat a lot. When I'm training in Denver, I don't really sweat that much, but you're still losing a lot of water. Your higher altitudes, you're closer to direct heat, and you don't really know you're losing that much water because you're not sweating. So people equate sweating with being dehydrated.

``Sometimes people go out there, and they get dehydrated and don't even know it because they aren't actually physically seeing the sweat. When you get dehydrated, that decreases your athletic performance by almost 40 to 50 percent. On top of that, the altitude really gets to you. I tell people from Miami when you go up there [West] and start training, it's going to be like closing your nose and your mouth and breathing through a straw. It's less dense air so you can't breathe as well.''

Lashley is psyched.

``I have a lot of really good people coming in there because I've made a lot of friends through the business and different fights,'' he said. ``Denver is a cool place. A lot of people like to go to the mountains which is an hour and hour and a half away from my house. I'm going to have a couple of dorms set up so people can come through.

``It helps me out, too, because with different big names coming in, the local people are going to love it, but at the same time, I'm going to have different training partners, so I can work with them also.''

And it's home?

``And it's home,'' he said. ``My kids will enjoy that.''

Lashley has a 1-year-old son and a 4-year-old daughter.

``The MMA fights are cool for my daughter because I win, and I win quick,'' he said. ``We were just watching one on YouTube. I try not to let her watch the fighting part of it, but we were watching one of my wrestling matches. She was like, `Daddy, you're not winning,' because I was getting beat up. So she doesn't know the difference between the two. She's like, `Ah, whatever daddy does is fine with me, but daddy, don't let nobody beat you.' So I don't show her any of those parts. She's my little princess.

``The rest of my family knows I have a good head on my shoulders. So they know whatever I do is going to help out the family the best. They just say, `We'll be here for you, cheering for you.' So whether I'm fighting or professional wrestling, they got my back.''

Lashley notes the similarities with MMA and pro wrestling.

``It is a show,'' he said. ``People don't come to just see a one-punch knockout. They come to see a fight in MMA. In wrestling, they come to see a show.

``Wrestling has a very valid point when they say when you come to see professional wrestling, we have a three-hour show, and you're going to get three hours of action. They can guarantee that. In MMA, you can't guarantee it.''

Lashley understands MMA.

``In MMA, you can be a star from just being a man, and being a man is getting out there,'' he said. ``I have respect for anyone who steps into the cage or octagon. It's not that I don't have respect for everyone else, but I can at least say that the guys who actually trained, stepped in there, I have respect for them. It's a respect factor among all the fighters.

``Getting in there and learning the discipline, I don't want to say I went away from that, but I kind of went away from that a little bit when I went into professional wrestling.

``In MMA, I take that dedication, that hard work, that grind, that mental. I like that about MMA. That's my favorite part of MMA.''

Lashley earned the respect of the MMA community.

``Overall, I don't think a lot of people looked at my amateur wrestling background when I came into MMA. They just looked at the professional wrestling part,'' he said. ``The really cool thing about American Top Team, when I went there, they respected me. They were mainly Brazilians there. They were like, `C'mon in.' I went with some of the toughest fighters my first day there -- Thiago Silva at 205, Antonio Big Foot Silva, Carmello Marrero, Mario Rinaldi.

``I went with all these guys my first day in, and I battled with them, and I didn't give up, and I was going hard with them. I earned my respect with that camp right away. I really became good friends with all those guys, and the rest is just history. I love training with these guys.''

Brock Lesnar -- another amateur wrestling standout who also starred in professional wrestling/sports entertainment in WWE -- quickly became the king of the world in UFC.

``Brock opened up more doors in MMA for amateur wrestlers than pro wrestlers,'' Lashley said. ``Amateur wrestling is a martial art. People don't understand that. There are a lot of amateur wrestlers coming into MMA and doing really well, really quick.

``Boxing, kickboxing, jiu-jitsu -- all those are martial arts. Everybody is trying to take their own forte and make it the best. [Lyoto The Dragon] Machida showed everybody karate is a legitimate martial art.

``That's what they need to look at Brock as, an amateur wrestler taking amateur wrestling into mixed martial arts and making it his sport but tweaking it his way. Machida tweaked it to a karate way. Everybody's tweaking it to their own personal way.''

Lashley respects Lesnar.

``I think Brock is doing real well,'' he said. ``He's doing a great job for amateur wrestlers. At the same time, he's doing a great job for people taking a look at professional wrestling. He's showing that there is an entertainment side to this business, and when people come, they want to be entertained.

``There are some parts I sit there and watch in MMA, and I'm torn between the two fighters. GSP [Georges St. Pierre] and Thiago Alves, when they fought I was like, `I really like Thiago.' He's a good friend of mine. He's a great fighter. I just seen this guy train, but there's no reason you shouldn't like GSP. He's a nice guy, straight-laced, clean cut guy. I just want to see them fight. It's going to be a good fight.

``I have a little more emotional attachment to Thiago because he's on my team [American Top Team], but for the average person out there, they're just looking at these guys and like both of them.

``When Brock fought, they booed Brock when he came out, and they cheered Frank Mir. It made Frank Mir a bigger star, and it make Brock a bigger star also. Brock proved, if you see a fight and you want this guy to lose and this guy to win, you're really into this fight more, and it's going to bring the business up because you're telling a story.''

Lashley wants to fight the best.

``I want to get into that battle and win that title,'' he said. ``For me, I'm doing what is right for me. Brock's way is right for him. What's right for me is I want to be a student of this game. When I move up, I want my opponent looking across at me thinking, `Well, if I stand up with Bobby, he might knock me out. If I take Bobby down, he might submit me. If I let Bobby take me down, he's going to ground and pound me. If I stand there, he's going to eat me up. If I run, I'm eventually going to be trapped in the cage. Ahhhh.'

``That's what I want to do, and when I get to that point, that's when I'm fighting for the title.''

Lashley also has goals in TNA.

``I think TNA has a great thing going.'' he said. ``I watched the [Victory Road] pay-per-view on [Sunday night, July 19]. I was into it. I was a fan like I was when I was a kid.

``[Dr.] Stevie Richards and Abyss had a great, great match. Stevie Richards has been in so many different roles [ECW, WWE, TNA]. Every time he does it, they throw him the pitch, and he hits a home run, and he's doing it once again.''

Lashley adds to an impressive TNA roster.

``It's going to help me coming back into professional wrestling that TNA has so many people who can work real well,'' he said, ``because they can throw me in there with almost anyone, and we can have a good match.

``There's a lot of build-up with certain people, like I'm really interested in wrestling Kurt [Angle]. I had a long feud with Booker [in WWE]. Me and Samoa Joe might beat each other to death, and I want to have square off with Big Poppa Pump because he is a monster. So there's a lot of good ones, and I'm pretty anxious.

``I also want to work with A.J. Styles because that guy is phenomenal. The way he works matches, it's going to be cool to go with that guy. I was fortunate enough to do a tag match with him before.

``I was in Colorado, and I was getting ready to go to Puerto Rico or Japan to wrestle. I needed to work a match [beforehand] so I called a local promoter and said I would come up and work a show for them. He said, `Oh man, I don't know if we have enough money to afford you.' I said, `Look, I want to come up there and work for you.' He said, `OK, I'll get you in.' I had a tag match with me and A.J. Styles against two other people, and it was great.''

The muscled 6-1, 255-pound Lashley has goals in TNA.

``I love professional wrestling,'' he said. ``I want to get to the role where I can be a champ. Some people can be a champ. They know how to take the ball and run with the show. That's what the champ needs to do. I want to get to that point where I can do that, whether it's on the mic, in the ring, giving my heart and energy into it. Maybe it's holding the title. Maybe it's not holding the title. I just want to get to that level.''

So Lashley will try to teach that level in two worlds -- MMA and TNA -- simultaneously.

``Some of the MMA organizations are like, `Oh no, he's in professional wrestling. That's the enemy. Let's stay away from him.

``In pro wrestling, they're like, `We want you [MMA] guys. We're not trying to compete with you guys.'

``The [MMA] organizations that understand don't have a problem with it at all. Actually, it can turn me into a heel in MMA, booing me, wanting me to get beat, but you're going to have to find somebody to beat me. That's the thing.''

If he continues to climb the ladder, Lashley can also become the first MMA champ and TNA champ simultaneously.

``If that happens, that would be cool, real cool,'' he said.

• TNA's Hard Justice pay-per-view is 8 p.m. EST Sunday, Aug. 16 from Universal Studios Orlando.

• Tune into TNA iMPACT! at 9 p.m. EST Thursdays on SpikeTV. Visit tnawrestling.com.

• TNA tapes TNA iMPACT! three times a month at Soundstage 21 of Universal Studios Orlando. Admission is free.

Wrestlers sign autographs and pose for photos, and some lucky fans go backstage. Seats are first come, first serve.

Call 407-224-6000 or visit universalorlando.com/shows/tna-wrestling.