Shelton Benjamin looked back on a WWE segment he shared with Trish Stratus and Vince McMahon.
In 2004, Philadelphia Eagles star Terrell Owens and Desperate Housewives actress Nicolette Sheridan stirred up backlash when they appeared in a racy commercial for Monday Night Football that saw Sheridan’s character Edie drop her towel and entice Owens into missing a big game. The scene ended with fellow Desperate Housewives stars Teri Hatcher and Felicity Huffman asking “Who watches this trash?” before switching over to a football game.
Because the segment was heavily discusses in popular culture and faced backlash from some groups, Vince McMahon decided to parody the skit on an episode of Monday Night Raw. The parody featured Trish Stratus, complete with her face mask to protect her broken nose, coming onto Shelton Benjamin, who calls her the “biggest sl*t on Raw.”
Before Stratus could drop her towel, the pair are interrupted by Vince McMahon, who facetiously talked about a woman in a towel being “scandalous” and pointed to sexual and racial overtones of the segment. After declaring that the FCC will not tolerate such behavior and claiming that “this isn’t the NFL,” Benjamin told the Chairman to “lighten up” and left the scene before Stratus dropped her towel and jumped into McMahon’s arms.
“I Was Already On Board” – Shelton Benjamin
Recalling the segment in an interview with fellow Ruthless Aggression star Maven on his YouTube channel, Benjamin explained that he was on board with performing in the segment once he saw the dialogue, pointing out that he considered it a clap back at the silly backlash aimed toward the NFL segment.
“We did one rehearsal, and again, to me, it was TV. We kind of rehearsed it once, and I heard the lines because Vince kind of changed it up here and there, but for the most part, I heard it, and I thought it was funny too. I was looking at what we were spoofing. We’re holding up a mirror to American society, going, ‘Do you see how stupid you look right now? This is what you have a problem with. Who is this hurting?’ I was already on board.”
When asked if Stratus was truly naked under her towel, Benjamin said:
“No. I think they had like a bikini under there or something. Definitely not naked.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Shelton Benjamin revealed how he received a massive WWE pay raise without having to ask.
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.
h/t Fightful