Shelton Benjamin

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Shelton Benjamin
Statistics
Stage names	Shelton Benjamin
Height	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Weight	245 lbs.
Born	July 9, 1975
Hometown	Orangeburg, South Carolina
Debut	2000

Shelton Benjamin (born July 9, 1975 in Orangeburg, South Carolina) is an American professional wrestler and former amateur wrestler now working for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)'s RAW brand.

1 Career
2 Trivia
3 Finishing and signature moves
4 Championships and accomplishments
5 References
6 External links

Career

Benjamin was Brock Lesnar's tag team partner (also a wrestling teammate and roommate at The University of Minnesota) in Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW). Together they were known as The Minnesota Stretching Crew and held the OVW Tag Team Titles on three occasions. After Lesnar was called up to WWE, Benjamin formed a tag team with Redd Dogg Begnaud (later known as Rodney Mack in WWE) to again hold the OVW Tag Team Titles.

He joined WWE as a heel along with Charlie Haas in 2003 to form Team Angle, with former Olympic gold-medallist wrestler and former WWE Champion Kurt Angle as their mentor. After splitting with Angle, the two referred to themselves as The World's Greatest Tag Team until they were separated when Benjamin was moved from the company's SmackDown! show to WWE RAW.

Upon arriving on RAW, he was immediately confronted by the show's top heel, Triple H. Triple H accused him of laughing when he was transferred to SmackDown! via the Draft Lottery (a subsequent trade sent Triple H back to RAW the following day). Triple H attacked Benjamin backstage, which led to a match in which Benjamin scored a tremendous upset by pinning the former World Heavyweight Champion. Two more victories followed, and Benjamin quickly became a face singles star.

Benjamin defeated Ric Flair at Backlash 2004, and continued being pushed as an up-and-coming star. An injury briefly put Benjamin out of action, but he came back in the fall of 2004, shortly before the Taboo Tuesday pay-per-view. He was voted in over fourteen other superstars to get an WWE Intercontinental Championship shot against Chris Jericho and succeeded in defeating him for the belt on, holding it for eight months.

On November 22, 2004 Benjamin appeared in a comedy vignette with Trish Stratus and Vince McMahon which parodied a controversial Monday Night Football incident on November 15 featuring Desperate Housewives actress Nicolette Sheridan flashing wide receiver Terrell Owens. After Benjamin rejected Stratus' advances, McMahon appeared and asked Benjamin if he was aware that he was an African American, as "everybody knows, African Americans are attracted to Canadian white women with broken noses."

During his reign as the Intercontinental Champion, Benjamin had been impressive, defeating challengers such as Christian, Maven, and Gene Snitsky even successfully retaining the title at Backlash in a return match with Chris Jericho. With this victory over Jericho, Benjamin beat Randy Orton's record for the longest reign as Intercontinental Champion in recent history. The longest reign ever is that of The Honky Tonk Man. Benjamin would lose his title to Carlito on June 20, 2005, when Carlito held the ropes to get the pinfall.

Benjamin entered a fued with Kerwin White afterwards after flopping in the midcard for a while. At Unforgiven 2005, Shelton beat Kerwin after a T-Bone Suplex.

Trivia

Shelton Benjamin was Charlie Haas's best man at his wedding to Jackie Gayda

Finishing and signature moves

T-Bone Suplex (Modified exploder suplex)
Benjamin Frostkick (Sidekick)
Flying lariat
Dragon whip
Stinger Splash (Running corner body splash)
Top Rope Springboard Bulldog
Top Rope Springboard Inverted Bulldog
Top Rope Springboard Crossbody
Samoan drop
Inverted Facelock Backbreaker
Pinning Combinations

Championships and accomplishments

World Wrestling Entertainment

WWE Intercontinental Champion
- October 19 2004 - June 20, 2005
WWE Tag Team Champion (2)
- February 24 2003 - May 18 2003 (with Charlie Haas)
- July 1 2003 - September 16 2003 (with Charlie Haas)

Ohio Valley Wrestling

OVW Southern Tag Team Champion (4)
- February 13 2001 - April 22 2001 (with Brock Lesnar)
- May 15 2001 - July 14 2001 (with Brock Lesnar, vacated due to injury)
- October 13 2001 - November 7 2001 (with Brock Lesnar)
- July 17 2002 -- (with Redd Dogg Begnaud, vacated)

Pro Wrestling Illustrated

PWI Tag Team of the Year Award, with Charlie Haas (2003)
PWI Top 500 wrestlers: ranked 9th (2005)

WWE Intercontinental Championship
Preceded by: Chris Jericho	First reign	Succeded by: Carlito

WWE Tag Team Championship
Preceded by: Los Guerreros	First reign (with Charlie Haas	Succeded by: Eddie Guerrero and Tajiri
Preceded by: Tajiri and Eddie Guerrero	Second reign	Succeded by: Los Guerreros