WWE star Shelton Benjamin was the latest guest on Hall of Famer D-Von Dudley’s Table Talk podcast to discuss all things pro-wrestling, including Benjamin’s relationship with Mia Yim, and what he believes are the main differences between the Raw and SmackDown locker rooms. Highlights from the interview are below.
Talks about about friendship with Mia Yim and how she has a lot to offer the women’s division:
Mia Yim, she’s my little sister. I love her to death. We have the most unique relationship I have of any woman that I know. She’s an awesome person, she’s super talented and I still can’t wait for WWE to just unleash her and really let her go because she’s an amazing talent, she’s a hell of a talent, and you know, congratulations to her and Keith Lee who got engaged not too long ago. Good luck Keith. But, she’s an awesome person, friend and she’s actually one of the people I actually talk to, obviously when we’re backstage together. Now, I do wear a hazmat suit when I talk to her, but, we talk.
On the differences between the Raw and SmackDown roster:
So I haven’t had a chance to be a part of SmackDown in a while and I know a lot of things, a lot of dynamics changed especially with us on FOX and everything. Back in the 2000s, SmackDown was definitely more fun, more laid back. Raw was their flagship, more, I guess high pressure but also I feel like a lot of that had to do with personnel. I just felt like on SmackDown, everybody there was trying to help everybody, from top guys to bottom guys. There was a lot of things, behind the scenes stuff that I really don’t wanna get into that SmackDown just didn’t deal with and back then, that was my take. Today, I don’t know. I haven’t been there in a while. But I will say while I was there on SmackDown, since 2017, I thought it was one of the most unified crews ever. Everyone seemed to be super cool with each other. Everyone was, you know — it was one of the best locker rooms I had ever been in.
How he hates the Performance Center era of wrestling:
So, the P.C. era we like to call it. So, that was — it was just weird. I watched a couple episodes. I wasn’t brought to work for a couple weeks and so I saw a few of the shows and it was just strange watching it. It was almost depressing watching it. When I finally had to go and perform, oh man, it was like pulling teeth. There was no energy. You had to create energy. There was no sound, there was no atmosphere. It was just — I mean honestly, it’s like going into an empty room and trying to entertain people. It’s just — I hated it.
(H/T and transcribed by Post Wrestling
)