Matt Hardy believes Shelton Benjamin has a lot of bring to the table in All Elite Wrestling.
During the latest edition of his “The Extreme Life Of Matt Hardy” podcast, the former AEW and current TNA wrestler commented on Benjamin’s recent AEW-ring debut against Lio Rush on Dynamite, what he has to offer going forward, and more.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On Private Party’s WrestleDream performance: “You know, I have not seen the pay-per-view. I did follow the clips. I was watching — especially online while it was going down, very closely the Private Party [and] Young Bucks stuff. I was really interested in that because as you know, I have a very close relationship with Private Party. I’m very invested in what they do and how their future goes moving forward. And I love the fact that they wanted to kill it. They had a great match; all the feedback I saw has been really, really good.
“But it’s one of those things I hope they eventually pull the trigger on those guys. Because I think if you’re going to make those guys, you’re in that window of time — which is small often — that you need to get it done, especially if you want to move them up to the next level. They’re guys that have been there for five years since the beginning. They are OG AEW guys. I would love to see them become the World Tag Team Champions. I’d love to see them beat the Bucks and become the champions, because then that would kind of cement them as being a foundational tag team at AEW. And I would like to see that happen.”
On Shelton Benjamin’s AEW in-ring debut against Lio Rush: “I enjoyed seeing Shelton’s match. My biggest criticism of it is that I feel like they should have had Shelton have a more definitive win his first time out. I thought he looked great, and it was great for him to have a match… I love the fact that they had a great match. I just — me personally. This is once again my opinion, take it or leave it. I feel like Shelton should have gone out, and he should have been in a match that was five minutes, and he looked dominant. I like Lio Rush. I think he’s super entertaining. I dig what he does, but I don’t think we needed a 10-minute, 12-minute match, whatever it was, super competitive back-and-forth. I think you really needed to just shine the light on Shelton. Like, ‘This is Shelton Benjamin. He’s here. He’s badass, and he’s going to be a difference-maker in AEW.’”
