He achieved All-American status twice in wrestling, placing fifth in the heavyweight division of the NCAA Championships in 1997 then improving to third place in 1998. He then transferred to the University of Minnesota on a wrestling scholarship for his junior and senior years of college. īenjamin briefly went to North Carolina State University on a full football scholarship in 1995. Benjamin then attended Lassen Community College in Susanville, California and became a National Junior College Athletic Association collegiate wrestling champion. Benjamin recorded a 122–10 overall win–loss record in his high school career and was a two-time South Carolina state high school heavyweight wrestling champion (1993-1994). He began wrestling his sophomore year at Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School. He was released from WWE in April 2010 but returned in August 2017.īenjamin was born and raised in Orangeburg, South Carolina. During his first tenure with the company, he won the Intercontinental Championship three times, the United States Championship once, the WWE (Raw) Tag Team Championship three times (twice with Haas and once with Cedric Alexander), and the WWE 24/7 Championship three times. WWE then moved him to the main roster in 2002, where he formed an alliance with Kurt Angle and Charlie Haas, known as Team Angle, and later, The World's Greatest Tag Team with Haas. After attending junior college, he completed his degree from the University of Minnesota.īenjamin started his professional wrestling career in WWE's developmental territory Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW), where he held the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship four times (three times with Brock Lesnar and once with Rodney Mack). Benjamin won an NJCAA championship in both track and field and collegiate wrestling. Prior to becoming a professional wrestler, he was a two-sport athlete in college. Within the World Wrestling Council (WWC), he won the WWC Universal Heavyweight Championship once. He is also known for his work in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and Pro Wrestling Noah through their working relationship under the ring name Shelton X Benjamin and for American promotion Ring of Honor (ROH) under his real name. He is currently signed to WWE where he performs in a tag team with Cedric Alexander. Shelton James Benjamin (born July 9, 1975) is an American professional wrestler.

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