AEW World Tag Team Champion Shelton Benjamin appeared on Talk Is Jericho to discuss a number of topics, including his time in NJPW.
Benjamin said, “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.”
On how the run reinvigorated his love for 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.”
You can check out the complete podcast below.
(H/T to Fightful for transcribing the above quotes)
