Success, Bust or In-Between: Shelton Benjamin

[Ferbian]

he's the longest reigning IC champion since The HonkyTonk Man.

Correction: He's the longest reigning champion since The Rock held the championship in 1997 for 265 days, and Shelton's reign lasted for 244 days.

Now to make this a non spam post, I'm gonna have to agree with some of the people here making the point that he could very well go under the "success" section, but in the end, he didn't reach the main event scene, and ultimately ended up doing nothing but serving as talent enhancement to guys like Zack Ryder, Vance Archer and Sheamus, which weren't anything memorable at all.

The last time we saw Shelton doing anything remotely memorable is over a year's time ago when he held the United States championship before loosing it to MVP.

Now culminating that period of time, where he weren't doing anything, with a decently successful career for the remainder of the time, but ultimately failing hard in being pushed into the main event scene, I remain believing that he should be voted an In-between, but I'm not gonna bash people's votes, just pointing my point out.

 

[FunKay the Inevitable]

In-Between. He's had a solid career but spent a large portion of it jobbing. For every IC Title reign, tag team title reign and US title reign, there have been points where he was either losing to low card wrestlers or at least fueding with them (Remember Kerwin White?). His run as part of The Worlds Greatest Tag Team was very good. To this day they remain one of my favourite teams. His run as IC champion in 04/05 was solid as he went over several solid stars (Chris Jericho, Christian etc...). But overall, he'll probably be remmebered for the MITB match. That's probably the evidence that makes him an in-between.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

Listen, I loved Shelton as much as the next guy and thought he was a great wrestler, but the fact of the matter is that he was a colossal bust.

He was given all of the necessary tools in order to succeed. He and Charlie Haas were brought in as Kurt Angle's proteges. After a mostly successful run, he took the next step and went over Triple H three times. Then he went over Ric Flair. He then went on to have a classic with Shawn Michaels. He picked up Intercontinental Titles along the way. He was built to become a main eventer, and in a perfect world, he'd be one right now.

A funny thing happened along the way though, he couldn't cut a promo to save his life. To this day, I think him saying to Jericho that he was playing him a song on "the world's tiniest violin" to this day might have turned the WWE off of him, because not only was the line cringe inducing, but so was the delivery. Then started the rumors that he kind of gave up, but could still make money by not exerting his full potential, and that's what happened. If you're not going to care, why should the WWE? He went from being regarded as a guy who could someday be a main eventer to a guy who did really nothing else besides a huge jump off the ladder every year in MITB.

He was given opportunity after opportunity to show something and get a push. He just didn't care. All of the pieces were there time after time for him to succeed. He was a bust. A colossal one.

 

[Razor]

A bust. Oh dear god a bust.

Part of this is because I hated the son of a bitch. Fucker couldn't cut a promo or make the crowd care for the life of him.

But the largest part of this was what GuyCompton said. Benjamin was put in a huge position to go over. He went over Triple H what, 2 or 3 times? He got title after title after title. If there is one thing that marks who the WWE wants to push, it's getting a title even when the crowd couldn't give less of a shit about you.

Benjamin was given all of these titles, all of this television time, and every chance to show just how high he could jump in the ring. He proved to everyone that he could jump really high, but he couldn't make them care. And that's why Benjamin was a bust. He's a Jeff Hardy without the cheers.

 

[Dan E. Inferno]

I think in-between is very fair when it comes to Shelton Benjamin. On the one hand he has held several titles. Three IC titles, one US title and a two tag titles ain't too shabby. He's also had a bunch of good matches, and I'm not just talking about ladder matches. His 2005 tournament match on RAW against HBK is a personal favourite of mine.

However, when you look at that midcard success and the undeniable talent he possessed, it's a damn shame that he could never break into the main event. It seems to be a mix of creative failing him and the man himself reportedly having attitude problems backstage, but either way Shelton never fulfilled his potential.

So, I think it's harsh to say bust because of what he did accomplish during his career, but it's also stretching it to say success because of what he didn't. So, in-between it is.

 

[GameOver]

I voted inbetween. Though it's is a fine line
He was very talented in ring no doubt and was pushed to titles, but we all know just cause someone gets a title doesn't mean they were necessarily that good at the time.
My main problem, other than the boring mic skills, he didn't get involved in "many" great fueds and was pretty much stuck as

First off - One third of the Kurt Angle's team/and a great tag team specialist
2nd - a guy who always put on spot fests in Money in the Bank
3rd - a guy with all the talent in the world but very limited mic ability and thus very Steve Blackmanish

For those too young or don't know much of the attitude era, Steve Blackman was a legit world champion multiple forms Martial Artist who was great in ring but as a character he was very boring.

Anyway back to the point, he was always gonna get stuck as a midcard at best. Which in my view is a not a success for someone with obvious wrestling talent.

Maybe TNA if he went there could turn that perception around, but i houghly doubt it.

Unfortunately the same fate looks likely for Christian, unless Vince allows him to break through that glass ceiling.