Shelton Benjamin Says NJPW Run Reinvigorated His Enthusiasm For Wrestling

Shelton Benjamin had a run in NJPW from 2011 through 2015, and he recently talked about how important that run was for his career. Benjamin appeared on Talk is Jericho and spoke about his post-WWE run in NJPW; you can see some highlights below (h/t to Fightful):

On his time in NJPW: “How I ended up there was, MVP had already been over there working and he was in an angle and they had him in an angle where he needed a partner. I think they said they wanted to pair him with a Japanese guy. In truth, he’s not Japanese, so if he had a big fight coming up, he’s not just going to go a random Japanese guy and say be my partner, he’d actually going to go to somebody he knows and trusts to battle with. I was working with Ring Of Honor at the time and he called me and was like, ‘Can you do this?’ I went over and it was supposed to be a one shot, but they liked my work so they asked me to come back again. We had a couple more matches and they liked my work. I remember this was how I learned the Japanese style of things, because they said to me, ‘You, G-1?’ This is management, I want to say Gedo. I’m like, ‘I don’t know, do you want me in the G-1?’ Long story short, what started off as a one time booking turned into a four year relationship.”

On that run reinvigorated his love of wrestling: “When I saw NJPW was so good to me, they really re-invigorated my enthusiasm for the business, I loved it. It was kind of like when I first got to WWE, everything was new and fresh and I was just excited just to be a part of it. But now, I’m actually in Japan, I’m spending weeks and months at a time in Japan and I’m actually learning the culture and learning the language. I learned how to get on the train and I know how to be independent in Japan as opposed to when I go with WWE, it was very in and out, you didn’t really get time to really experience anything.”