Shelton Benjamin reflects on the legendary ending to his match against Shawn Michaels on WWE Raw in 2005.
Shelton Benjamin and Shawn Michaels faced each other on the May 2, 2005 episode of WWE Raw. The match was part of a tournament to determine who would next challenge Batista for the World Heavyweight Championship. Still, it would go on to outlive the tournament and be spoken about as highly as almost any other match that has ever taken place on WWE television.
The match is best known for the exciting finish where Shelton Benjamin springboards halfway across the ring into a Sweet Chin Music from Shawn Michaels. Now, Shelton Benjamin has revealed to Maven in a new YouTube video that Michael Hayes came up with the idea.
"The idea was Michael Hayes'. Michael Hayes basically was like, 'Shelton, you think you could springboard across the ring to Shawn? I was like, 'Yeah.' He's like, 'Well, how far can you get?' I'm like,' Well, how far do you need me?' A lot of things that I could do naturally, I didn't see is special because I just assumed this is just what we do," he said. "Everything happened in a split second. But for me, in my head, my perception was I had five minutes to figure out how to get my feet under me, and the whole time I'm looking, I'm looking at Shawn's foot. One of the things I do to protect myself is I do [put hands up]. So when, if you look, you notice my hands, yeah, and I [windmill hands to protect his face]. The secret for me was when my hands felt Shawn's foot, that's when I started bumping. That's when you took that. That's my snap. My head gotcha, because my hands come here in front of me, and just a split second of, 'I just need to touch it and go.'"
Benjamin would go on to say that Vince McMahon gave him a standing ovation after the match.
Fans can learn about Benjamin being eliminated by Shawn Michaels in three consecutive Royal Rumbles here.
If you use any of the above quotes, please credit Maven's YouTube channel in addition to linking back to this article and giving Fightful credit for transcription.
