Shelton Benjamin On Working Undertaker, If He's Happy With His WWE Career, Why He Left WWE, More
Shelton Benjamin is the latest guest on Talk is Jericho with WWE legend and Fozzy frontman Chris Jericho. Below are some notes from the interview, and you can catch the full conversation between the two at PodcastOne.com now.
* With regard to leaving WWE, Shelton said he knew the "writing was on the wall" when he worked three straight weeks doing two-segment matches with The Undertaker, and felt he was consistently elevated every single week in those matches. However, the next week he showed up and lost clean to R-Truth in just a few minutes.
"I was at that point where I felt like my tires were just spinning, no matter what I did. I just couldn't get ahead. It's like the same spot, even while I did do something to really elevate myself."
* Despite some creative differences over the years, Shelton says he looks back on his tenure with WWE and is happy with the success he found there.
"I can't complain, from a financial standpoint. I wasn't always in the position that I wanted to be in, but I always had a position. I was there for just shy of 10 years. I can't be bitter; I had a good career. I won many titles, I had a lot of great matches, made a lot of great friends. Overall I'm very happy with what I accomplished while in the WWE. I think more could have been done, of course, but for the most part I'm pretty [happy]."
* Shelton was backstage at a WWE Live event in South Dakota this summer, but was only there for about 45 minutes to visit with friends, and left before the show event started. He noted that the roster was so different, the only people he knew were Kane, Miz and Kofi Kingston.
Other topics discussed in this week's podcast:
* Going back to college at the end of his WWE run
* Arriving in New Japan Pro Wrestling
* Behind the scenes of Benjamin's many matches with Chris Jericho
* Working with Eddie Guerrero
* New Japan's "invasion" angle in Pro Wrestling NOAH
* Being in OVW with John Cena, Brock Lesnar & Randy Orton
* More