Shelton Benjamin recently appeared as a guest on the Kurt Angle Show for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling.
During the discussion, the pro wrestling veteran reflected on his WWE Intercontinental Championship victory over Chris Jericho in the past, as well as his negative first memory of Brock Lesnar from their college wrestling days.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview where he touches on these topics with his thoughts.
On his first memory of Brock Lesnar as an assistant coach at the University of Minnesota: “So my first memory of coaching him wasn’t pleasant. Now, don’t get me wrong, Brock was a great guy. Lots of fun like he isn’t the Brock that he showed. He wasn’t abrupt, but he shows everyone now, you know, there are two very different sides to that guy. But at the time, my first impression when we got in when we actually got into the ring, was just to wrestle him. I wanted to see what he knew because, of course, me being, you know, I was still extremely competitive anyway. And the one tournament that we were in together, he actually won because I had lost in a previous bout. So I was like, Really, okay, I want to know what he can do. And I shot in on him. And all he did was stress his hip forward, and I flew back across the room, and I said, Well, that’s not going to work. So, honestly, he was a sponge, like Brock. Brock is built for war. His his, his combat acumen, his combat IQ, like everything He taught him, he picked it right up his first few matches. Minnesota, like he just destroyed guys effortlessly. And the one. The first time he lost a match, it was because he actually won the match, in my opinion. It was just him shooting this explosive double. And he would literally just run right off the mat with it. So he kept taking the guy out of bounds. So, scores weren’t counted. And he lost by one point. And it was clear he dominated that kid but he was the guy from, I believe it was Iowa State. And, you know, he just, he just lucked out that night. That never happened again. Oh, so as far as bringing like a pupil, a sponge, like he’s gonna picks up everything. But in all honesty, I coached him for about, I don’t know, a few months because I was there almost two years, helping them out and working with him. But for the first six months, it was more coaching and fine-tuning after that. It was just straight wrestling. They like it. What else can you teach him? He was a juggernaut. And I could, I could I, and I was familiar enough to be able to handle it, but like, there were some days it was just misery. For some days, he would completely dominate me. There was never a day where I completely dominated him. But I do know how to corral him. He’s a phenom. Like in every sense of the word.”
On beating Chris Jericho for the Intercontinental Title for the first time: “That’s when, in my head, I was officially overachieving. I’ve said this before: I didn’t expect to be working at night. And I know leading up to the pivot, you dealt with a nice build-up for me. They were, you know, giving me some momentum. I remember I had a promo with Mr. McMahon where, you know, I basically told him, you know, he gave me his blessing. I was like, Well, I don’t need your blessing. I need their blessing. Because this is voting. And the truth is, to me, my master Jericho was the only match on that card that truly was up in the air because Chris had no idea who was going to rest that night. They refused to tell him. Everyone else had a mess. It was some sort of getting match. So you knew what you knew who you were working with. And you knew there were these types of gimmicks or these types of stipulations. I’m sorry, in the case of Chris Jericho, he only knew that you got to wrestle one of 15 guys. And again, I always thought it was going to be Batista. And when I won, you watch the announcement. I wasn’t paying attention because I was just like, ‘Oh, it’s gonna be Batista’. And they said my name. So, there’s a delayed reaction for me. I had to fake excitement. But I was like, oh, you know, should I get a wrestle like, so it’s actually good. That made us stay in gear all day. And like when they did reveal, I went straight to the ring. And I had no idea I was going to win until Chris Jericho didn’t kick out. The only thing that was said to me going into that match was when Jericho locked up to me, and he said, ‘What’s your finish?’ And I said, ‘T-Bone.’ That little exchange was like the blink of an eye. And then we just had to mess, and I just listened to Jericho.”
Check out the complete interview at AdFreeShows.com. H/T to WrestlingHeadlines.com for transcribing the above quotes.
