A member of the AEW roster has high praise for their match against Chris Jericho that occurred more than 20 years ago.
Back in 2004, Shelton Benjamin was looking to break out on his own in WWE following the ending of his tag team with Charlie Haas. For Jericho, the established star had already reigned as the World Champion and was enjoying his 8th reign as Intercontinental Champion.
Jericho and Benjamin met one-on-one for the first time in rather unusual circumstances. Taboo Tuesday was a unique pay-per-view concept that gave the fans the power to vote for opponents and stipulations. At the show, Jericho was booked to defend the title with the fans having virtually the whole undercard to choose from.
In multiple interviews since the show, multiple stars and officials have stated the voting was legitimate, meaning neither Jericho nor Benjamin knew about the match ahead of time. In a shocking result, Benjamin defeated Jericho to become the new Intercontinental Champion.
Shelton Benjamin Reflects On Surprise Chris Jericho Match
Fast forward to 2024 and both wrestlers are now members of the AEW roster. Recalling the match and the shocking conclusion on the AEW Unrestricted podcast, Benjamin admitted that he thought Batista would be the opponent of choice:
“Number one, I 100% was not expecting to be in that match. I know that leading up to it, they gave me a little push and rub and I actually had a little thing I did with Mr. McMahon just to help bring in the votes. But when we got to the building, and I’ve said this over and over, I expected Batista to be working Jericho that night. So I really didn’t put much thought into it.”
Benjamin also expressed the importance of winning the Intercontinental Championship:
“Because of what I’d watched in wrestling before, I hadn’t seen a lot of Black Intercontinental champions. I’d seen Black tag team champions. So in my head, that’s all I was thinking about. By that time, I’d already won the tag team championship twice. So for me, when I won the IC title, I’m officially overachieving my original goals in getting into the business, but it was also a culmination of all the guys who had taught me how to just go in the ring and listen.”
H/t to Wrestling Inc.