During the 2020 men’s Royal Rumble match, Brock Lesnar teased reuniting with Shelton Benjamin in a nod to their OVW tag-team days.
Instead, Lesnar attacked Benjamin with a German Suplex before adding the Gold Standard to the 13 men eliminated by Brock in the match.
During a recent interview with TalkSport, Benjamin recalled how the spot came together and his reaction at the time. He said,
“They originally wanted us to just go at it… He [Brock] decided he don’t want to do that. He said: ‘let’s do this,’ – This whole thing was his idea and I wasn’t really on board with it.”
Benjamin, who had only recently signed a new deal with WWE at the time of the event, then shared how Vince McMahon tried to make the spot worth it. He said,
“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. Vince enjoyed it so much he immediately had talent relations call me in, and they gave me a six-figure raise.”
Lesnar would be eliminated by Drew McIntyre, who would go on to win the match and dethrone Lesnar at WrestleMania 36 as WWE Champion.
