Shelton Benjamin Recalls 2020 Royal Rumble Spot With Brock Lesnar, Says It Got Him a Raise

Shelton Benjamin had a famous spot with Brock Lesnar at the 2020 Royal Rumble, one he says got him a hefty raise. Benjamin reunited with his old tag team partner at that year’s Rumble and they embraced in the ring before Lesnar suplexed him and then clotheslined him out of the ring. Benjamin appeared in a new video on Maven’s channel and during the video he looked back at the segment. You can see highlights below, per Fightful:

On his original reaction to the spot: “They originally wanted us to just go at it, and he decided he didn’t want to do that. He said, ‘Let’s do this.’ This whole thing was his idea. I wasn’t really on board with it, only because I’m like, ‘Well, this makes me look stupid.’ So I’m just kind of like, ‘You know what? He’s got 30 other guys he’s got to worry about. Like, just give him the breather. Now, what I didn’t expect was fans to really like it, want it, but I just always wish they would have just let us do something.”

On getting a raise out of it: “Here’s the silver lining to all this. I had just signed a new contract with WWE. Vince, I guess, maybe a week or so later, he would re-watch the Rumble. Because of this spot, Vince enjoyed it so much, he immediately had Talent Relations call me in, and they gave me a six-figure raise.”