Shelton Benjamin is one of the world's greatest athletes but he understands the risk-to-reward ratio that allows for longevity in professional wrestling.
Shelton Benjamin is a human highlight reel. His abilities in the Money in the Bank ladder match helped establish that match as a spectacle for multiple WrestleMania events. Eventually, Money in the Bank even turned into its own pay-per-view.
Whether doing perfect topes off of a propped-up ladder to the outside of the ring or running up a ladder connected to another in order to hit a flying clothesline to Chris Jericho, Shelton Benjamin can be counted on to do just about anything needed in a wrestling ring.
One move that Shelton Benjamin removed from his arsenal before even joining the main roster of WWE in 2002 is a 450 Splash. Speaking to Sean Ross Sapp before this year's Royal Rumble event, Shelton explains that is because he was injured performing the move in Ohio Valley Wrestling and learned from that moment on to simply take it out of his move-set because the risk was not worth the reward.
"Real simple. The last time I did it I basically got injured,” he explained. “I banged my elbow and I actually had to have surgery on it. That’s pretty much why I took it out of the repertoire. Then, going further, there’s a lot of stuff I used to do that I just stopped doing. Believe it or not, this is advice that Brock gave me. It was very good advice. He said, ‘If you can hit it ten out of ten times, do it. If you can do it nine out of ten times, never try to do it on TV.’ So it’s just I don’t want to screw up on TV. It’s just as simple as that. I can still do a lot of stuff. I just choose not to because one—why? Two—the margin for error is greater than I want to risk.”
Sheldon explains that he first came to realize he was unique in the ring during his time in Ohio Valley wrestling. Shelton even recalled his WWE tryout match with actor Andrew Bryniarski.
“When I first came to OVW, that was the first time that the light started flickering. Because I would go in and when it came to pro wrestling, if [someone] showed me a move, it was like, ‘Okay.’ I’d do it. It was just that simple. Like I said, my perception of pro wrestling was that these are the best of the best. If one guy can do it, anybody can do this or should be able to do this. I did my WWE tryout with a guy named Andrew Bryniarski. Andrew Bryniarski actually played Lattimer in the movie the Program. I think he was the mayor’s son in one of the Batmans. He was Leatherface in the recent [movie]. So I did my tryout with him. My perception of him was I had seen him in the movie the Program. I think he’s this big tough football player. He can do anything. A great athlete. But then we started working and it was like at the time—and don’t think I’m knocking the guy, because he was a great guy—but he kinda moved around like Frankenstein to me,” he recalled.
“So that was the first time I was like, ‘I didn’t expect that.’ Then I got to OVW and I started seeing it more and more. But it was more that I was seeing it with guys who kept trying, kept trying. ‘How are you not able to do this?’ So that’s when I started realizing, ‘Okay I kinda got something.’ But what really made me go, ‘Okay, so this isn’t normal,’ was first Money in the Bank when I ran up the ladder. Everyone was like, ‘Whoa!’ I was like, ‘Really? I did this as a kid all the time. You mean you guys can’t do this?’ So that was the first I was like, ‘Oh, okay. I got something special here,’ said Shelton.
Continuing on, Shelton says he gained a greater understanding of just how unique he was inside the squared circle when he realized that veterans of the ring such as Chris Jericho and Edge were impressed with his work and saw him as a real-life video game character.
“I feel like Edge and Jericho were treating me like they were controlling me on a video game. ‘Hey, Shelton, can you do this?’ Beep. Hit a button then he does it. That’s basically what it was. Everything they came and asked me about, I was like, ‘Yeah.’ But in my head, I’m like, ‘Can’t you?’ No clue,” Shelton said.
Today, Shelton Benjamin is still doing his best in the squared circle as a member of the Monday Night Raw roster. We have live coverage of Monday Night Raw every Monday beginning at 8 p.m. eastern time.
