American professional wrestler From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Shelton James Benjamin (born July 9, 1975) is an American professional wrestler. He is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is a member of the stable The Hurt Syndicate.
| Shelton Benjamin | |
|---|---|
Shelton Benjamin in April 2013 during his time with Ring of Honor | |
| Born | July 9, 1975 Orangeburg, South Carolina |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Shelton Benjamin Shelton X Benjamin |
| Billed height | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) |
| Billed weight | 248 lb (112 kg) |
| Billed from | Orangeburg, South Carolina |
| Trained by | Ohio Valley Wresting |
| Debut | 2000 |
He is best known for working with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and has also worked for Ring of Honor from 2010 to 2013. He also wrestled for New Japan Pro Wrestling under the ring name Shelton X Benjamin.
Benjamin started his career in Ohio Valley Wrestling and stay with them from 2000 to 2002. During his time there he won the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship three times with Brock Lesnar and one time with Redd Dogg.
He was called up to the WWE in 2002 and debuted on the WWE SmackDown roster on December 26, 2002. During his early career in the WWE, he, along with Charlie Haas formed Team Angle with Kurt Angle as their on-screen mentor. They began a feud with Chris Benoit. They became two-time WWE Tag Team Championship twice. Benjamin then was drafted to Raw and won the WWE Intercontinental Championship after he defeated then-champion Chris Jericho at the 2004 Taboo Tuesday.
He was part of a storyline where he was on a losing streak for many weeks which led his "momma" (played by actress Thea Vidale) to come to Raw to scold him. She assisted him in matches and sometimes interfered in them. She was taken off television when she was (kayfabe) undergoing heart surgery in the hospital and wouldn't be returning to the WWE.
In 2007, he started wearing gold attire and dyed his hair blond. He also began referring to himself as "The Gold Standard". Benjamin won the WWE United States Championship after he defeated then-champion Matt Hardy at the 2008 Great American Bash. Benjamin was released from the WWE on April 22, 2010 along with Jimmy Wang Yang, Kung Fu Naki, Slam Master J, Mickie James and Katie Lea Burchill.[1] He then wrestled on the Independent circuit, for Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro-Wrestling.
On August 17, 2017, Benjamin officially re-signed with WWE.[2] He returned on the August 22 episode of SmackDown and was put in a tag team with Chad Gable. During the 2018 WWE Superstar Shake-up in April, Gable was traded to Raw, disbanding the team.[3]
On the July 20 episode of Raw, Benjamin officially joined MVP and Bobby Lashley's stable The Hurt Business.[4] During his time with the stable, he would win the 24/7 Championship three times.[5][6] On December 20, at TLC, Benjamin and Cedric Alexander (who also joined The Hurt Business) defeated The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) to win the WWE Raw Tag Team Championship.[7] This made Benjamin a three-time (Raw) Tag Team Champion. They lost the titles back to Kingston and Woods on the March 15 episode of Raw. Benjamin was released from his WWE contract on September 21, 2023.[8]
On the October 2, 2024 episode of Dynamite, Benjamin made his All Elite Wrestling (AEW) debut. He was introduced as a business partner by MVP.[9]
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