Shelton Benjamin: Encyclopedia II - Shelton Benjamin - Career

Shelton Benjamin - Career

Shelton Benjamin - Ohio Valley Wrestling

Benjamin was Brock Lesnar's tag team partner (also a wrestling teammate and roommate at The University of Minnesota) in Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW). Together they were known as The Minnesota Stretching Crew and held the OVW Tag Team Titles on three occasions.

After Lesnar was called up to WWE, Benjamin formed a tag team with Redd Dogg Begnaud (later known as Rodney Mack in WWE) to again hold the OVW Tag Team Titles. Shelton did compete on some episodes of WWE Sunday Night HEAT before becoming an official member of the WWE roster.

Shelton Benjamin - WWE Smackdown

He joined WWE as a heel along with Charlie Haas in 2003 to form Team Angle, with former Olympic gold-medallist wrestler and former WWE Champion Kurt Angle as their mentor. The team would soon win the WWE Tag Team Championship.

After splitting with Angle, the two referred to themselves as The World's Greatest Tag Team. They soon won the Tag Team Championship for the second time. The team was separated when Benjamin was moved to the company's show, RAW. Shelton's singles career would begin to take off after the move.

Shelton Benjamin - WWE RAW

Upon arriving on RAW, Benjamin was immediately confronted by the show's top heel, Triple H. Triple H accused him of laughing when Triple H was transferred to SmackDown! via the Draft Lottery before being traded back to RAW the following day. Triple H attacked Benjamin backstage, which led to a match in which Benjamin scored a tremendous upset by pinning the former World Heavyweight Champion. Two more victories followed, and Benjamin quickly became a face singles star.

Benjamin defeated Ric Flair at Backlash 2004 and continued being pushed as an up-and-coming star. An injury briefly put Benjamin out of action, but he came back in the fall of 2004, shortly before the Taboo Tuesday pay-per-view. He was voted in over fourteen other superstars to get an WWE Intercontinental Championship shot against Chris Jericho and succeeded in defeating Jericho for the belt.

On November 22, 2004 Benjamin appeared in a comedy vignette with Trish Stratus and Vince McMahon which parodied a controversial Monday Night Football skit on November 15 featuring Desperate Housewives actress Nicolette Sheridan flashing wide receiver Terrell Owens. After Benjamin rejected Stratus' advances, McMahon appeared and asked Benjamin if he was aware that he was an African American, as "everybody knows, African Americans are attracted to Canadian white women with broken noses."

During his reign as the Intercontinental Champion, defeated challengers such as Christian, Maven and Gene Snitsky even successfully retaining the title at Backlash in a return match with Chris Jericho. With this victory over Jericho, Benjamin eclipsed the length of Randy Orton's reign as Intercontinental Champion. Benjamin would lose his title to Carlito on June 20, 2005, when Carlito held the ropes to get the pinfall.

During his reign, Benjamin also participated in a special "Money In The Bank" Ladder Match at WrestleMania 21 for a shot at the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Despite not winning the match, Benjamin was credited by many for "stealing the show". Benjamin also had a memorable match with Shawn Michaels on RAW, which ended incredibly with Benjamin jumping off the top rope right into Shawn Michaels' Sweet Chin Music. Michaels would later say that Benjamin was the greatest young superstar he had seen in the last 20 years.

Benjamin later appeared in an Angle Invitational match, losing to Kurt Angle after a great display of wrestling from the two. Benjamin then entered a feud with Kerwin White. At Unforgiven 2005, Shelton defeated Kerwin White. A few weeks later, Shelton teamed up with Matt Striker to face off against Kerwin and his caddy Nick Nemeth. Striker abandoned Benjamin in the middle of the match, igniting a brief feud between the two.

After being encouraged by Shawn Michaels to show "more attitude" on the December 5, 2005 edition of RAW, Benjamin hinted at a heel turn by carelessly losing a tag match with Michaels as his partner. The following week, his carelessness cost him a qualifying match for a spot in a WWE Championship Elimination Chamber match at New Year's Revolution. He showed up at RAW's Tribute to the Troops where he lost to Gene Snitsky.

Benjamin wound up as the opponent for John Cena in the "Beat the Clock" matches to determine who would be last to enter the Elimination Chamber at New Year's Revolution. He was able to survive long enough for Cena's time to surpass that of Shawn Michaels, but eventually lost. Later that night he was shown calling a person on a cell phone, who will be present next week.

The following week on the January 2, 2006 edition of RAW, it was revealed that the person on the phone was Shelton's "Momma" (played by comedienne/actress Thea Vidale). His mother came to confront him about his recent losing streak over the past few weeks.

After Viscera attempted to flirt with Benjamin's mother at New Year's Revolution 2006, she called him out to the ring to face Shelton. Shelton won, with help from his mother (who hit Viscera with a brick-loaded purse). The following night, his mother helped him again in a match against Val Venis, which was a Royal Rumble qualifying match.

The next week on RAW Benjamin and his "Momma" entered Vince McMahon's office and "Momma" demanded to know why Benjamin wasn't in a match on that night. Evidently annoyed with "Momma" for demanding a match for Benjamin McMahon agreed to give Benjamin a match with someone worth of his talents. To Benjamin's shock his opponent was the still injured Big Show, who proved intimidating enough to "Momma" to quieten her. However Benjamin won the match, despite being on the back foot the whole match, with Show being counted out he left the ring to persue Triple H who'd tried to attack Show.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Career", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki