During the 2020 WWE Royal Rumble match, fans witnessed a memorable moment when Brock Lesnar embraced Shelton Benjamin before quickly turning on him with a German suplex and eliminating him.
In a recent interview with Maven Huffman, Benjamin discussed how the spot came together and the surprising aftermath.
Benjamin revealed that the original plan was different:
“This whole thing, they originally wanted us to just go at it and he [Lesnar] decided he don’t want to do that. He said ‘let’s do THIS [the betrayal].’ This whole thing was his idea and I wasn’t really on board with it only because I’m like ‘well this makes me look stupid,’ so I was just kind of like ‘you know what, he’s got 30 other guys he’s got to worry about, just give him the breather.’ Now what I didn’t expect was fans to really like it. I just always wish they would have just let us do something. We could have had so much fun.”
Despite initial reservations, Benjamin’s involvement in the spot led to unexpected rewards:
“Here’s the silver lining on all this. I had just signed a new contract with WWE. Vince [McMahon] I guess had kind of went back and re-watched it maybe a week or so later. He went and re-watched the Rumble because of this spot. Vince enjoyed it so much he immediately had talent relations call me in and they gave me a six figure raise.”
The quick interaction not only became a fan-favorite moment but also helped secure Benjamin a major contract boost.
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