Shelton Benjamin explains how capturing the WWE Intercontinental Championship immediately brought him to a place where he was exceeding his own expectations for his career.
Shelton Benjamin captured his first WWE Intercontinental Championship by defeating Chris Jericho at WWE Taboo Tuesday 2004. He was the victor of a fan vote that legitimately decided who Jericho would defend his championship against on that evening. Now, he's reflecting on what that victory meant for his career.
During a recent video on Maven's YouTube channel, where he discusses the highlights of his career, Shelton Benjamin explained that growing up, he didn't see many black singles champions, and once he captured the WWE Intercontinental Championship, he had attained a level of success that he thought he never would.
"From this moment here, I am officially overachieving as a WWE Superstar, as far as my perception of where my career was going. Growing up in South Carolina, I always watched wrestling. I loved wrestling. However, there was not a lot of black singles champions, not saying there weren't any, but I saw more championships on black tag teams than on black singles. So when I joined WWE, my perception was, 'Oh, it'd be great if I can win the Tag Team Championship there.' I'm not thinking about World Titles. I'm not thinking about US Titles or Intercontinental Titles. So when I won this, I'm literally going, 'I've officially overachieved my own goals."
Shelton Benjamin still wants to win a world championship, and he hopes to do so in AEW. Learn more here.
Elsewhere in the interview, Benjamin reflected on the short-lived angle where Thea Vidale played his mom on WWE TV. Learn more about why he declined to have his real mother, a part of the storyline here.
If you use any of the above quotes, please credit Maven's YouTube channel in addition to linking back to this article and giving Fightful credit for transcription.
