Matt Hardy Believes WWE Star Would Be Pushed More If He Debuted Today

AEW

Since his WWE main roster debut in 2002, a WWE star has been a United States Champion, multi-time Intercontinental and Tag Team Champion.

Shelton Benjamin was released from his WWE contract in 2010 and would go on to perform on the independent circuit.

He would also experience runs in Ring of Honor, NJPW and Pro-Wrestling Noah before returning to WWE in 2017.

Despite this legacy, Matt Hardy recently spoke on The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy about what he thinks would have happened if the three-time Intercontinental Champion would have debuted today.

Looking at Benjamin and his arrival in WWE, Hardy said:

“I think if you had a young Shelton Benjamin come along today, it would change a lot.

“Back then, they were looking for larger-than-life personalities, people that really bonded with the crowd, and I feel like they didn’t see that as much in Shelton as they would have liked to.

“They knew, from an athletic perspective, he was just unbelievable. He was unreal.”

Turning his attention to the wrestling landscape of today, Hardy explained:

“But I feel like in this day and age, if you have someone who’s an amazing athlete and produces these great quality matches, day in and day out and does every single time they hit the ring, then they get over in a different way because the fan base is kind of changed for their respect of the in-ring content as well.”

With this in mind, Hardy hypothesized:

“So I think if Shelton came along today, I think it would be changed, and he would definitely be programmed a lot higher than he was back then.”

Benjamin frequently features on WWE Main Event, though has made appearances on WWE Raw, recently having been seen in a losing effort against Dominik Mysterio.

Transcript from Fightful.

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• Shelton Benjamin
• Matt Hardy
• wwe

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