One former WWE star was surprised with a massive pay raise after impressing Vince McMahon.
During the 2020 Royal Rumble, Brock Lesnar impressed in a dominating performance after entering at number 1. One of his 13 eliminations of the night saw him tease a reunion with longtime friend Shelton Benjamin. The two hugged and shared a high five before Lesnar hit Benjamin with a German suplex and clotheslined him over the top rope, eliminating the star in short order.
Speaking with Maven Huffman on his YouTube channel, Benjamin opened up about the memorable moment, admitting he wasn’t in favor of the spot and would have liked to work more with Lesnar during the match.
“They originally wanted us to just go at it and he [Lesnar] decided he don’t want to do that. He said ‘let’s do THIS [the betrayal].’ This whole thing was his idea and I wasn’t really on board with it only because I’m like ‘well this makes me look stupid,’ so I was just kind of like ‘you know what, he’s got 30 other guys he’s got to worry about, just give him the breather.’
Now what I didn’t expect was fans to really like it. I just always wish they would have just let us do something. We could have had so much fun.”
However, the spot impressed former WWE CEO Vince McMahon, who gave Benjamin a massive pay increase as a result.
“Here’s the silver lining on all this. I had just signed a new contract with WWE. Vince, I guess had kind of went back and re-watched it maybe a week or so later. He went and re-watched the Rumble because of this spot. He enjoyed it so much he immediately had talent relations call me in and they gave me a six-figure raise.”
After his release from WWE in September of 2023, speculation swirled that Shelton Benjamin was headed to All Elite Wrestling. Sure enough, Benjamin made his AEW debut and joined MVP on the October 2nd episode of Dynamite.
Why Did Vince McMahon Eventually Leave WWE?
On January 25th, 2024, former WWE employee Janel Grant filed a lawsuit against Vince McMahon, John Laurinaitis, and WWE that contained horrifying allegations of grooming, abuse, and sex trafficking. On January 26th, Vince McMahon resigned from all duties with TKO and WWE while continuing to deny the allegations against him.
An amended version of Janel Grant’s lawsuit containing new evidence has since been filed, and her team is requesting that the case move to discovery.
h/t WrestleZone