Shelton Benjamin On Which Wrestlers He Loved Growing Up

Shelton Benjamin recently revealed which wrestlers he loved watching as he grew up. Benjamin spoke during a Q&A on For The Love of Wrestling and talked about how he grew up watching more Southern wrestling promotions and didn’t watch much WWE. You can see some highlights below (courtesy of Wrestling Inc):

On who he watched growing up: “I grew up in the American South, so I saw a lot of [Jim] Crockett stuff. I didn’t see a lot of WWE, so for me, Hulk Hogan was the other guy. Ric Flair was the man. In my world, Ric Flair is and was the greatest world champ ever. So I grew up watching a lot of Ric Flair, obviously The [Four] Horsemen. The Rock ‘n Roll Express, that duo made me fall in love with wrestling. I was tuning in to see the Rock ‘n Roll Express and from there, guys like Magnum TA, Dusty Rhodes, Nikita Koloff, later the Samoan SWAT team, the Steiners, the Skyscrapers, Barry Windham – all of those Crockett area guys.”

On being inspired by Sting: “I’ve been a Sting fan for as long as I can remember. If you watch some of my earlier work, I am stealing his offense…like the splash, the chopping, the kicks, that is all Sting; I’m literally stealing his stuff.”

On meeting Sting: “It was really short because it was actually at an event like this. He was signing in a private area, I was on the floor, and I just told the promoter, ‘I’ve never met Sting, and I want to meet him while I have the chance.'”