Shelton Benjamin

Shelton Benjamin (born July 9 1976) is an American professional wrestler and former amateur wrestler now working for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)'s WWE RAW brand. He was born in Orangeburg, South Carolina, USA.

Benjamin was a tag-team partner to Brock Lesnar in Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW). He joined WWE with Charlie Haas in 2003 as Team Angle, with former Olympic wrestler and former WWE champion Kurt Angle as their mentor. After splitting with Angle, the two referred to themselves as the Self-Proclaimed 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 Triple H, who accused him of having laughed when Triple H was transferred to SmackDown! via the Draft Lottery. (A subsequent trade had 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 just like that, Benjamin was a singles star.

Benjamin defeated Ric Flair at Backlash 2004, and continued being pushed as an up-and-coming superstar. 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 14 other superstars to get an Intercontinental Title shot against Chris Jericho, and succeeded in defeating "Y2J" for the belt on October 19 2004.

As of February 2005 he is still champion, and currently has a standing open challenge in effect-- that is, whoever wishes to face him for the title may do so on any RAW-brand television program.

Signature/Finishing moves

• Exploder Suplex (T-Bone Powerslam)
• Flying clothesline
• Dragon-whip
• Benjamin Frostkick (Superkick)
• Stinger Splash (Corner-Running Splash)

Championships/Accomplishments

• WWE Intercontinental Champion
  • October 19 2004 -

• WWE Tag Team Champion (2)
  • February 24 2003 - May 18 2003 (with Charlie Haas)
  • July 1 2003 - September 16 2003 (with Charlie Haas)

• OVW 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)