Looking now, it may seem strange to say that Shelton Benjamin was nearly a top tier WWE Superstar. However, those that were following along during the Ruthless Aggression Era know how impressive the Gold Standard was.
In his first few years with the company, Benjamin captured Tag Team and Intercontinental gold, and picked up victories over stars like Eddie Guerrero and Triple H. By 2005, fans figured he was a future world champion.
Sadly, that never happened, and Benjamin would stall in the mid-card for the rest of his first run in the company. On a recent episode of Something To Wrestle with Bruce Prichard, the Executive Director of SmackDown revealed what went wrong.
“Shelton came in, was part of that Brock class with John Cena and Batista and a lot of studs, so to speak. JR would say, ‘Goddamn! Blue chipper class! Sassafras!’ And Shelton, first of all, he could do anything. To this day, he can do just about anything. Incredibly talented performer. Yeah, maybe missing a little bit of that It Factor, but a great performer and being given the opportunity and being able to work with someone like a Jericho makes him shine all that much more.
Shelton’s stock was high, and I think that there were a lot of people that felt Shelton could’ve been one of the guys. Unfortunately, for whatever reason it is, [we] would hit a wall with Shelton sometimes and couldn’t get to that next level.
I don’t think that he ever fulfilled his potential. I think he could’ve been a much bigger star. I really and truly do. And I think that… I dunno. I don’t think that the audience would accept him at this point beyond where we are.”
Shelton Benjamin is considered by many to be a Superstar that WWE dropped the ball with. What are your thoughts on Benjamin? Did he just fail to rise to his true potential? Did the company fail the former Intercontinental Champion in some way? Let us know in the comments below.
