Last September, Shelton Benjamin was one of the many WWE Superstars released following the WWE-UFC merger. Since his release he’s remained on the outside of professional wrestling unlike some of his peers. While Nic Nemeth, Ash By Elegance (WWE’s Dolph Ziggler and Dana Brooke) as well as Mustafa Ali have been dominating TNA and the independent wrestling scene, Benjamin has taken a backseat.
Videos by ComicBook.com
In January, Benjamin made it clear he was still weighing his options post WWE, noting that there have been “knocks” at his door but he has “no commitments” as of yet. There was a point in time where some talent within AEW were pushing to bring Benjamin prior to him being let go. There were rumors that the end of his contract was imminent but that turned out to be false as he still had some time on his deal. Now that he’s been out of WWE for six months, it appears that conversations between the two sides have picked up. Fightful Select is reporting that there have been talks about possibly bringing him in but there’s no word as of yet whether or not that would be contracted or a full-time deal if anything has been finalized at all.
AEW President Tony Khan also owns Ring of Honor now which has been a major part of Benjamin’s career over the years. He appeared off and on from 2010 when he was initially released from WWE until 2013, also popping up in promotions like New Japan Pro Wrestling and Pro Wrestling NOAH. He would make his return to WWE in 2017 and had been with them until his release in 2023. His last WWE match took place just weeks before he was let go on Main Event against The Viking Raiders. Because AEW was founded in 2019, Benjamin has never had the chance to dip his toes into the promotion and face off against some of its biggest and brightest stars. In recent months, AEW has mad moves to hire several top free agents, including former IMPACT/TNA Knockouts World Champion Deonna Purrazzo, Will Ospreay and Kazuchika Okada.
Would you like to see AEW make an acquisition with Shelton Benjamin? Who would you like to see him mix it up with? Let us know in the comments!
