Shelton Benjamin discusses his run in NJPW.
A few months after his departure from WWE in 2011, Shelton Benjamin turned up in New Japan Pro Wrestling to team with MVP in a big match against Masato Tanaka and Yujiro Takahashi. That match turned into a huge run for Benjamin in the company that lasted until early 2015.
While chatting with Chris Jericho on the latest edition of Talk Is Jericho, Benjamin talked about his run with the company and how everything unfolded.
“How I ended up there was, MVP had already been over there working and he was in an angle and they had him in an angle where he needed a partner. I think they said they wanted to pair him with a Japanese guy. In truth, he’s not Japanese, so if he had a big fight coming up, he’s not just going to go a random Japanese guy and say be my partner, he’d actually going to go to somebody he knows and trusts to battle with. I was working with Ring Of Honor at the time and he called me and was like, ‘Can you do this?’ I went over and it was supposed to be a one shot, but they liked my work so they asked me to come back again. We had a couple more matches and they liked my work. I remember this was how I learned the Japanese style of things, because they said to me, ‘You, G-1?’ This is management, I want to say Gedo. I’m like, ‘I don’t know, do you want me in the G-1?’ Long story short, what started off as a one time booking turned into a four year relationship.”
Then, Benjamin continued on and said that NJPW reinvigorated his enthusiasm for the sport of wrestling.
“When I saw NJPW was so good to me, they really re-invigorated my enthusiasm for the business, I loved it. It was kind of like when I first got to WWE, everything was new and fresh and I was just excited just to be a part of it. But now, I’m actually in Japan, I’m spending weeks and months at a time in Japan and I’m actually learning the culture and learning the language. I learned how to get on the train and I know how to be independent in Japan as opposed to when I go with WWE, it was very in and out, you didn’t really get time to really experience anything.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Benjamin talked about his short tag team run with Chad Gable in WWE. Check out his full comments by clicking here.
Benjamin and Lashley recently won tag team gold in AEW. Check out full details on the title change by clicking here.
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