Shelton Benjamin on Coming Back to WWE, the Usos, ‘WrestleMania’ Goal

Shelton Benjamin was the latest guest on Edge & Christian’s Podcast Of Awesomeness where he spoke about his WWE return, ‘WrestleMania’ goal and his incident with The Usos.

On if he thought he’d be back with WWE again:

“Oh, it’s awesome [to be back with WWE]. It’s one of those things where I’d have nights where I’d dream that I was back [in WWE] and wake up like, ‘nope, still on the indies.’ But it was always something that I felt I would be back. It wasn’t even something I questioned whether or not I would be back. It was the when and seven years is long enough.”

“Long-term, I always felt like I was going to come back. I love to give these guys crap, but in my head, I go, ‘look, they hired Cryme Tyme twice. If they don’t hire me back at some point, there is really something going on there.’ So with that in mind, I was fairly confident that I’d be back.”

On if he got emotional in returning to the company:

“Oh, man. Even though I heard from the back… we were live when we did the little backstage thing and I heard that response and I was blown away. Like, I was so [touched]. I mean, you’ve got to contain it a little. At the same time, I was a kid in a candy store, ‘they love me – they really love me!'”

“The ovation I got when I did come back, it was very emotional for me. It was great. That’s all I can put it – it was great.”

On working with Gable:

“I’m actually pretty excited about it because, obviously, I wasn’t sure what we were going to do as far as my return goes. And I think, obviously, I have Twitter, and the internet, and everything else, and for the last few years, I would always get all the time how [Jason] Jordan and Gable remind people of me and Charlie, so of course, I’m like, ‘but they aren’t me and Charlie,’ right?”

“I had no idea I would be teaming with him. It’s one of those things. It’s really a good way to bring me back in. I think it’ll be fun to get to know him, and to learn to play off of him, figure out our strengths and weaknesses because we’re actually two different power wrestlers from different eras. I’m actually excited like everyone else to see what we can do.”

On what he told Gable:

“I’ve told him, ‘I’m here and I’m not here to collect a check.’ I’m not that guy. Obviously, at this point of my career, a lot of guys would just be happy to have a job. I’m not one of those people. I’m grateful to have a job, but I’m still here to compete. I still have goals that I want to achieve and I want to earn my keep and then some.”

Benjamin reacts to a previous story The Usos told:

“Before shows, me and Charlie would get in the ring with extras and work out, and do all these things in the ring because that’s what I was programmed to do. I figured I was strong enough. I lifted Big Show once and I’m like, ‘if I can lift him, I’m good.'”

“The misconception when they say their first week on the road, the misconception when most people hear that is that their first week on the road as WWE Superstars and the truth is, they’re referring to when they first got on the road, their uncle, Umaga, brought them to Houston [Texas] and we worked out with them. This was long before The Usos even had a [WWE] tryout. That’s how long that was going on. Most people think it was after they had their first tryout. No, this is before they were even signed. So yeah, they were pretty easy to intimidate them because they had no clue what they were getting into, especially with Charlie!”

On his ‘WrestleMania’ goal:

“Provided we’re still a tag team [by] then, I’m thinking go in the champs, come out the champs. That’s my attitude as far as WrestleMania goes, but, obviously, we don’t know. We don’t know the future yet, at least I don’t. So any other thing, I would love to be in some sort of title hunt or some kind of title defense. And like I said, I’m aiming for the stars here. My attitude is I don’t have time to play around. I don’t have years to waste. I don’t have years to experiment. I want it and I want it now.”

On his rotator cuff injury:

“I tore my rotator two-and-a-half… well, a month-and-a-half before I got the call [from WWE]. I had no idea it was torn. I thought I was hurt, not injured, so I was still wrestling in Japan on a full schedule for two-and-a-half months after that. And my shoulder was sore, but at the time, I’m not thinking rotator cuff because I was still throwing guys across the ring. Doing all my stuff, I didn’t feel hindered, just sore afterwards and after 17 years how could I not be?”

On WWE promoting his return before he had been signed:

“Yeah, and that’s the crazy thing. I don’t know if it was the combination [of WWE running return vignettes prematurely], but when they ran that first vignette, and this was before we crossed all of our Ts and dotted all of our Is.” Benjamin added, “in my head, on one hand, I figured, ‘well, with my reputation, they would feel confident in running that, but at the same time, I’m like, ‘why would they do that before we signed everything?’ I hadn’t even done the physical yet.”

On how the injury was a blessing in disguise:

“I took it as a blessing in disguise because had they’d not contacted me, had they not sent me in to do a physical, I probably would have kept working until my shoulder completely gave out on me. And who know how much worse I could’ve made it? So it was a blessing in disguise. I mean, the timing sucked and what was at stake, all of that falling through for the moment, that sucked.”

H/T to WrestlingInc for the transcription.

Check out this classic match between ‘The Gold Standard’ and ‘The Olympic Gold Medalist,’ which we highly recommend.

Kurt Angle vs Shelton Benjamin 8/22/05

What are your thoughts on Benjamin’s responses? Are you excited he is back? Let us know in the comments below or over on our Facebook page or Twitter account. Additionally, you can find me on Twitter at @SOSNH1995. We also want to remind you that we have a Newsletter you can sign up to. This will allow us to send you the best news in one place via an email. We also have the Wrestling Rumors app that we encourage you all to download to get updates faster than they release on our various pages. It is available on Android and iOS devices.