Shelton Benjamin

Shelton James Benjamin (born July 9, 1975) is an American professional wrestler.

Benjamin recorded a 122–10 overall win–loss record in his high school career and was a two-time South Carolina state high school heavyweight wrestling champion (1993-1994).

Benjamin then attended Lassen Community College in Susanville, California and became a National Junior College Athletic Association collegiate wrestling champion.

Benjamin briefly went to North Carolina State University on a full football scholarship in 1995.

He then transferred to the University of Minnesota on a wrestling scholarship for his junior and senior years of college.

He achieved All-American status twice in wrestling, placing fifth in the heavyweight division of the NCAA Championships in 1997 then improving to third place in 1998.

After graduation, he served as an assistant wrestling coach at his alma mater and trained with future Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) tag team partner Brock Lesnar.

He is best known for his tenures with WWE, from 2000 to 2010, and then again from 2017 to 2023.

He is also known for his work in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and Pro Wrestling Noah through their working relationship under the ring name Shelton X Benjamin and for American promotion Ring of Honor (ROH) under his real name.

Within the World Wrestling Council (WWC), he won the WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship once.

Prior to becoming a professional wrestler, he was a two-sport athlete in college.

Benjamin won an NJCAA championship in both track and field and collegiate wrestling.

After attending junior college, he completed his degree from the University of Minnesota.

Benjamin started his professional wrestling career in WWE's developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), where he held the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship four times (three times with Brock Lesnar and once with Rodney Mack).

Benjamin thought about trying to qualify for the 2000 Summer Olympics but decided instead to pursue a professional wrestling career.

On January 10, 2000, Benjamin signed a contract with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and was placed in its developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW).

OVW booker Jim Cornette paired Benjamin with his former college roommate Brock Lesnar after he felt Lesnar was "boring" as a wrestler and had "no personality", while Benjamin was "exciting".

Together, they were known as the "Minnesota Stretching Crew," and they held the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship on three occasions.

The first two reigns occurred during February and July 2001.

They won the title for a third time from Rico Constantino and The Prototype on October 29, 2001.

WWE then moved him to the main roster in 2002, where he formed an alliance with Kurt Angle and Charlie Haas, known as Team Angle, and later, The World's Greatest Tag Team with Haas.

During his first tenure with the company, he won the Intercontinental Championship three times (his first title reign lasted 244 days, the longest in this century that lasted until 2023 ), the United States Championship once, and the WWE Tag Team Championship two times with Haas.

After Lesnar was called up to the main roster in November 2001, Benjamin formed a tag team with Redd Dogg Begnaud called "The Dogg Pound" and once again won the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship on July 17, 2002.

Benjamin then wrestled at several house shows for the main WWE roster and eventually made his WWE television debut on Sunday Night Heat as a face.

He joined WWE's SmackDown! brand as a heel on the December 26, 2002, episode of SmackDown!, forming an alliance with Charlie Haas and Olympic gold-medalist Kurt Angle as their mentor known as "Team Angle".

Their first televised match together in WWE was on the January 2, 2003, episode of SmackDown! against Edge and Chris Benoit.

The duo won the WWE Tag Team Championship just a month after their debut by defeating the champions, Los Guerreros (Eddie and Chavo Guerrero Jr..) on the February 6 episode of SmackDown!.

They continued their feud with Benoit until No Way Out, when Benoit teamed with Brock Lesnar to defeat Team Angle.

The two then went on to compete in their first WrestleMania match at WrestleMania XIX, retaining the WWE Tag Team Championship in a Triple Threat match against Los Guerreros, and Chris Benoit and Rhyno.

Team Angle later lost the WWE Tag Team Championship to Eddie Guerrero and his new partner Tajiri at Judgment Day in a ladder match.

The storyline concluded on the June 12 episode of SmackDown!, when Angle confronted Benjamin and Haas and fired them from Team Angle.

They then began referring to themselves as "The World's Greatest Tag Team" and won the WWE Tag Team Championship back from Guerrero and Tajiri on the July 3 episode of SmackDown!.

They lost the titles to Los Guerreros on the September 18 episode of SmackDown!, after Benjamin suffered a legitimate knee injury during the match.

Benjamin was sidelined for approximately one month, but the pair competed together again, taking part in a Fatal Four-Way match for the WWE Tag Team Championship at WrestleMania XX.

On the March 22, 2004, episode of Raw, Benjamin was drafted to the Raw brand as part of the 2004 WWE draft lottery.

After arriving, Benjamin quickly became a face when he scored an upset victory over Triple H.

He was released from WWE in April 2010 but returned in August 2017, going on to join The Hurt Business and win the renamed WWE Raw Tag Team Championship a third time with Cedric Alexander, and the WWE 24/7 Championship three times.

He was released again in September 2023.

Benjamin was born and raised in Orangeburg, South Carolina.

He began wrestling his sophomore year at Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School.