Shelton Benjamin is a professional wrestler currently working under the World Wrestling Entertainment’s SmackDown Brand. In his tenure with the WWE, he has won the WWE Intercontinental Championship three times, the WWE United States Championship once, and WWE Tag Team Championship twice.

Benjamin was born on July 9, 1975 in Orangeburg, South Carolina and began as an amateur wrestler in high school. Throughout his high school years, Benjamin’s record was 122-10 and held the South Carolina high school championship in 1993-1994. While at the University of Minnesota, he compiled a 36-6 record and was a two-time All-American heavyweight wrestler. He also served as assistant coach at the university and worked with future WWE star Brock Lesnar.

By 2000, he was offered a developmental contract by the WWE and was sent to the Ohio Valley Wrestling. He forged a successful tag-team partnership with Brock Lesnar and was collectively known as the “Minnesota Stretching Crew”. The team held the OVW Tag Team titles on three different occasions. After Lesnar left for the main roster, Benjamin held the OVW Tag Team once more, this time with Red Dogg Bernaud as “The Dogg Pound”. Benjamin was also featured several times on Sunday Night Heat during 2002.
On December 2002, he joined Kurt Angle’s stable, Team Angle, along with tag team partner Charlie Haas. As part of Team Angle, Benjamin held the WWE Tag Team Championship with Haas and competed with several other tag teams for the titles. When Angle fired the duo from Team Angle, they renamed themselves “The World’s Greatest Tag Team” and regained the tag titles on July 2003. Benjamin suffered an injury in September that year and had to drop the titles. He returned a month later but the duo was unsuccessful in regaining their title belts.

Benjamin was then transferred to Raw as part of the 2004 WWE Draft. On his arrival, he immediately caught the ire of Triple H and Evolution. In a series of matches against Triple H, Benjamin won thrice, either by pinfall, count out, or disqualification. He also captured the WWE Intercontinental Championship against Chris Jericho at Cyber Sunday that year, giving him his first singles title belt.

Over the next few months, Benjamin would then turn heel once more after suffering a “losing streak”. He also brought his “Momma” along with him to his matches, often distracting the referee to Benjamin’s advantage. Shortly after winning his 2nd Intercontinental Title run, Benjamin’s “Momma” was written out of the storyline. Benjamin lost his title to Rob Van Dam but regained it after pinning RVD in a “Winner Takes All” match in 2006. Haas returned to the WWE that same year and the World’s Greatest Tag Team reunited.

When he moved to ECW, Benjamin started calling himself “The Gold Standard” and started wearing golden attire coming to the ring. He then feuded with Kofi Kingston and competed in several matches. As part of the 2008 Supplemental Draft, Benjamin was moved back to SmackDown and captured the US Championship from Matt Hardy. Before he lost his title, Benjamin held the belt for 243 days. In the latest SmackDown episodes, Benjamin and Haas are back together as a team and has begun feuding with John Morrison.

Real Name: Shelton Benjamin
Date of Birth: July 9, 1975

WWE Career:
2003
WWE Tag Team Championship with Charlie Haas ‘Team Angle’ (SmackDown) – February 4, 2003

2004
WWE Intercontinental Championship (Taboo Tuesday 2004) – October 19, 2004

2006
WWE Intercontinental Championship (Raw) – February 20, 2006
WWE Intercontinental Championship (Raw) – May 15, 2006

2008
WWE United States Championship (The Great American Bash 2008) – July 20, 2008

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