During a recent appearance on the “Out of Character with Ryan Satin” podcast, Shelton Benjamin commented on the “Mama Benjamin” angle in WWE in 2006, and more.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On the Mama Benjamin angle in WWE in 2006: “The Mama Benjamin stuff gets such a bad rap and what people don’t realize, I was having the time of my life. We were doing these funny skits every week, we were working with Mr. McMahon all the time. I remember the one skit where she walked in on him with his pants down. It was hard to contain laughter just thinking back to those times because it was so much fun and it was so silly. I was playing a mama’s boy and my mom [Thea R. Vidale] did a tremendous job of playing my mom, she was a scene-stealer. To me, it was a lot of fun. How long you think that actually lasted? Start to finish, eight weeks. I don’t remember exactly what happened. She had a few legitimate health issues that were a concern. There was other stuff that I heard that, at the time, I was completely unaware of, but we won’t get into that. She did a tremendous job and it really, at the time, I needed something. For people to say, ‘Oh, he never recovered.’ No, are you crazy?
“I had so much fun with that and it’s memorable. When you’re a pro wrestler, you want to do things that are memorable. I don’t want to just be on the roster and, ‘He had a nice long career.’ I don’t care. Good, bad, negative, if people are talking about you in our world, as long as people remember it, all I remember is having a good time with it. Playing that character was pretty easy thanks to Thea. I knew exactly who she was when she came in. When it came down to deciding who would actually be Mama Benjamin, it was me, Mr. McMahon, and one of our producers. We did a couple of skits with another woman and Thea, and my mind was made up as soon as I realized it was Thea. When she came in and blew everyone out of the park, at the time, I’m thinking of all these technical reasons, ‘She did this better, she did that better,’ trying to sound all professional. I had no idea what I was talking about, and Mr. McMahon just goes, ‘I just think she’s better.’ So, the first time you saw her was the day we picked her. She came in and blew it out of the water.”
On Brock Lesnar’s current character: “I would say it’s the most like he is in real life amongst people that he likes. I tell people all the time, one of the cool things with Brock is you never have to wonder where you stand with him because he’ll tell you, he’ll show you. He either wants nothing to do with you or you’re good friends. What you’re seeing to me is just Brock when he’s relaxed and amongst friends. You’re basically seeing another honest side of Brock because what you’ve seen for the last 20 something years, that’s not acting, that’s Brock in the ring and outside of the ring. The same sort of confidence, commanding presence, commanding attitude, everything, that’s Brock, period. He’s not playing a role, he’s not playing a situation, he’s just going out there and playing himself. But what he is is a monster. You’re just being allowed to see that this is the monster when he’s amongst [friends].”
(h/t – 411 Wrestling)
