Shelton Benjamin wasn’t nearly as down about the Mama Benjamin storyline as others were.
After being drafted to Monday Night Raw in 2004, Shelton found himself out of The World’s Greatest Tag Team and he was pushed as a singles star. Shelton picked up big wins over the likes of Triple H and Chris Jericho. With the Jericho win, Benjamin captured the Intercontinental Championship.
After losing the IC gold, many expected Shelton to move onto the main event scene. Instead, he fell down the card to the point where he looked more like an enhancement talent rather than a midcarder.
Enter Mama Benjamin
WWE attempted to spice things up by introducing a manager for Shelton, which was his kayfabe mother. While most panned the idea, Shelton Benjamin told Ryan Satin on the Out of Character podcast that he enjoyed the storyline (h/t Fightful).
“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 Vince 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 so silly. I played a mama’s boy and my mom (Thea R. Vidale) did a tremendous job of playing my mom, she was a scene-stealer. For me, it was a lot of fun.”
WWE was often hot and cold with Shelton throughout his first run with the company. There were numerous start and stop pushes with Benjamin until he was released back in April 2010. In his second run with WWE, Shelton is mostly used to put over other talent.
