Shelton Benjamin recently sat down with Kenny McIntosh from Inside The Ropes and discussed his time in developmental territory OVW and working with Jim Cornette.
After finding success in amateur wrestling, Shelton Benjamin made the transition to pro wrestling in the year 2000. A part of the famous OVW class that included Randy Orton, John Cena and Brock Lesnar, Benjamin spoke about adapting to pro wrestling:
“For me, I barely felt like there was any real transition,” Benjamin said. “I’ve been a pro wrestling fan since I was eight years old, so I knew what I was getting into. I’ve been a fan. I had playground championships and all these things. So for me, coming in, it was not much of a transition at all. It was actually a lot of fun. I don’t want to say it was easy, but looking back, it was for me, fairly easy.”
When asked about working with Jim Cornette, Benjamin praised Cornette among many mentors for being taught the old-school style while also crediting Cornette for his continued honesty.
“I think it was one of the best things for me because I was taught the old-school style of wrestling and how you conduct yourself,” he said. “Along with Jim Cornette, I give credit to Rip Rogers, Danny Davis, Nick Dinsmore and Rob Conway. I consider all of those guys my mentors. But Corny in particular, again, I was a fan of wrestling, so I knew exactly who he was. He was the first guy that I met that I marked out for. Because this is Jim Cornette. I remember this guy hitting Baby Doll with the tennis racket to make him be the heel who Dusty Rhodes wanted to get. So I go way back with it. It was awesome for me working under Jim.
I know he’s a very polarizing figure for a lot of people, but he’s been nothing but a friend and a mentor to me. He’s hard on us when he has to be. I always say no matter, at least in my experience, whether you like what Jim says or whether you don’t like what Jim says, no matter what, he’s being honest. I’ve never heard of Jim Cornette telling a lie, because Jim Cornette would rather curse you out than lie.”
