Matt Hardy believes Shelton Benjamin would be in a different position in the world of professional wrestling if he debuted today as opposed to twenty years ago.
On the latest episode of The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy, while discussing the short-lived rivalry between The Hardy Boyz and The World’s Greatest Tag Team in WWE, Hardy was asked why Shelton Benjamin never got the opportunity to have a main event run in WWE. Hardy contributed it to the time he started in the industry and believes had he debuted today, things would be different.
“I don’t know. I think if you had Shelton Benjamin, a young Shelton Benjamin, come along today, it would change a lot,” Matt Hardy said. “I think because back then it was still they were looking for larger-than-life personalities, people that really like 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, 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 it every single time he hit the ring, then they get over in a different way because the fan base has kind of changed for their respective in-ring content as well. So I think if Shelton came along today, I think it would be changed. I think he would definitely be programmed a lot higher than it was back then.”
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What do you make of Matt Hardy’s comments? Do you think he’d be a main event player if he debuted in professional wrestling today? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
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