Shelton Benjamin on Brock Lesnar Giving Him Advice to Avoid Using a 450 Splash

– During a recent interview with Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp ahead of the WWE Royal Rumble 2022, WWE Superstar Shelton Benjamin discussed his career, Brock Lesnar giving him advice on the 450 Splash, and more. Below are some highlights.

Shelton Benjamin on why he stopped using the 450 Splash: “Real simple. The last time I did it I basically got injured. I banged my elbow and I actually had to have surgery on it. That’s pretty much why I took it out of the repertoire. Then, going further, there’s a lot of stuff I used to do that I just stopped doing. Believe it or not, this is advice that Brock [Lesnar] gave me. It was very good advice. He said, ‘If you can hit it ten out of ten times, do it. If you can do it nine out of ten times, never try to do it on TV.’ So it’s just I don’t want to screw up on TV. It’s just as simple as that. I can still do a lot of stuff. I just choose not to because one—why? Two—the margin for error is greater than I want to risk.”

His first WWE tryout match with actor Andrew Bryniarski: “When I first came to OVW, that was the first time that the light started flickering. Because I would go in and when it came to pro wrestling, if [someone] showed me a move, it was like, ‘Okay.’ I’d do it. It was just that simple. Like I said, my perception of pro wrestling was that these are the best of the best. If one guy can do it, anybody can do this or should be able to do this. I did my WWE tryout with a guy named Andrew Bryniarski. Andrew Bryniarski actually played Lattimer in the movie the Program. I think he was the mayor’s son in one of the Batmans. He was Leatherface in the recent [movie]. So I did my tryout with him. My perception of him was I had seen him in the movie the Program. I think he’s this big tough football player. He can do anything. A great athlete. But then we started working and it was like at the time—and don’t think I’m knocking the guy, because he was a great guy—but he kinda moved around like Frankenstein to me.”

His thoughts on the experience: “So that was the first time I was like, ‘I didn’t expect that.’ Then I got to OVW and I started seeing it more and more. But it was more that I was seeing it with guys who kept trying, kept trying. ‘How are you not able to do this?’ So that’s when I started realizing, ‘Okay I kinda got something.’ But what really made me go, ‘Okay, so this isn’t normal,’ was first Money in the Bank when I ran up the ladder. Everyone was like, ‘Whoa!’ I was like, ‘Really? I did this as a kid all the time. You mean you guys can’t do this?’ So that was the first I was like, ‘Oh, okay. I got something special here.'”