Shelton Benjamin: “Guys Are So Reliant On Planning A Match, Regardless Of Crowd Response”

Shelton Benjamin has seen it all in the WWE world. He’s been in the ring with all-time greats such as Shawn Michaels, Eddie Guerrero, and Chris Jericho. 

One thing Benjamin learned from the aforementioned greats was how to call a match on the fly. 

Speaking to ESPN’s Farbod Esnaashari, Benjamin discussed the art of calling a match in the ring and how it’s become less prevalent in today’s WWE. 

“Guys are so reliant on planning a match, to go out and do their plan, regardless of crowd response. Sometimes you gotta go out and call audibles. You need to say ‘this ain’t working’ and change it up.”

Benjamin specifically mentions a match with Christian that took place in Canada as an example of deviating from the plan. Canadian fans are notorious for their love of fellow Canadians and rarely jeer the hometown hero. Such was the case when Christian wrestled Benjamin. 

“Christian was trying to turn the fans on him during a promo, but they cheered him even louder. We decided that he was the babyface and I became the heel. Right on the fly, we switched the match.”

The former Intercontinental Champion credited Eddie Guerrero for teaching him the art of calling a match on the fly. 

Nowadays, calling it in the ring doesn’t happen quite as often. Benjamin mentioned “Randy Orton, John Cena, AJ Styles, Brock Lesnar and Shinsuke Nakamura” as the people he would trust to call it in the ring with. Only three of those men work a full-time schedule and all of them are on SmackDown. 

Benjamin returned to WWE on Aug. 22, 2017, forming a team with Chad Gable.