Could Lash LeRoux have played Gambit in one of the early X-Men films? If a passionate fan back in 2001 had his way, it would have happened.
LeRoux retired from in-ring competition back in the mid-2000s with his last match being against Bull Buchanan. In a recent interview with Dominic DeAngelo of WrestleZone, Lash was asked what else he would have liked to do with his own persona if he decided to stick around in wrestling.
“I thought about it a lot. There’s so many different reiterations of that character that you could do and I think you still could do as a matter of fact,” he said. “It depends on the landscape of culture in the business. What are people responding to or is there an oversaturation of serious wrestlers? If there’s an oversaturation of serious wrestlers well maybe in order to stand out I want to be a little more goofy and I want to be a little more flamboyant.
Lash uses a Cajun example of being all decked out in Mardi Gras garb with pomp, circumstance and beads as something over the top and funny. In contrast, if there happened to be a serious feud or demeanor he wanted to portray, he talked about the idea of being a “rough around the edges” bayou battler, before diving into the comic book potential of a persona.
“Sometimes it’s driven by storyline, sometimes it’s driven by character or you could just be the wrestling version of that comic book character, Gambit. Just come out with that little bit of Cajun flair where you’ve worn like the hood with my hair sticking out of the top of it and you could just wear the trenchcoat and have a very similar look and have the ‘riverboat gambler’ type persona to it and there’s so many different directions you can take those things and it takes a lot of self-awareness.”
LeRoux then recalled back when a fan corresponded with him through email pitching the idea of petitioning him to be the next Gambit, who was rumored to be in X2: X-Men United.
“It totally blindsided me, I didn’t see this coming and I take it as huge compliment and it’s one of those missed opportunities you feel in life and it’s because I had somebody email me out of the blue and keep in mind too, late 90’s man we didn’t have the social media we have now and you didn’t have just this mob mentality of everybody can get behind something and push it, and also for the most part you had more than anything else, just kind of tribute sites a lot of times that would pop up here and there. Nobody really knew how to utilize the Internet for promotional purposes.
“He goes ‘I would like to start sort of a campaign “Lash For Gambit”‘ and he was basically seeking my endorsement of it.”
Lash told him to go for it.
“It was so impressive and so flattering. He had that same argument he just laid out to me he had put in the form of a very professional letter, he had put up there as an open letter to fans on the website when they first signed on.” Not only that, but this fan had contact information for 2oth Century Fox and the film’s directors and producers.
“He had all these people’s contact information listed on the website and he goes, ‘If you’re not comfortable writing a professional letter yourself, here’s a sample letter. Feel free to use this sample letter and put your name to it.”
You can catch Lash LeRoux once a month on AdFreeShows.com as he does “Time Limit Draw” where he draws a wrestling legend and shares stories. The series is exclusively for their “Slapnut” level of subscribers and up. Check out the full interview with Lash at the top of the post as he talks about leaving wrestling, the current landscape, his career as an illustrator and more.
RELATED: Former WCW Star Lash LeRoux Has Been ‘Drawn’ Back To Pro Wrestling
