Shelton Benjamin almost became Paige‘s bodyguard in the WWE.
The former Intercontinental Champion returned to the WWE in 2016, after six years away from the company. However, after just one vignette, he suffered a serious injury which kept him out of the ring for a year.
Shelton Benjamin finally returned in the summer of 2017. He soon teamed up with Chad Gable, unsuccessfully challenging for the Smackdown Tag Team Titles on numerous occasions.
However, during this time, he was nearly placed alongside Paige (Saraya) as her bodyguard. Shelton Benjamin revealed in an interview with The Metro‘s Alistair McGeorge that WWE pitched the idea to him during Paige’s time as the General Manager of Smackdown.
While this didn’t end up happening, he also almost became “Mr Entertainment”, a singing gimmick. Thankfully, that one also went nowhere.
“A pitch I had, I wanted to be – this is when I came back the second time. I think Paige was the general manager for Smackdown.” Shelton Benjamin said. “The idea was, I will start off as kind of her bodyguard, but I think it was it was going to turn romantic and that was all – they were all set to do that, and then it just didn’t happen.”
“At one point, I was going to be Mr. Entertainment where, you know, I’ll be singing,’ he said. ‘I think we kind of teased it once with the Bellas where I was kind of singing Louis Armstrong to them… I remember Vince wanted me to be Mr. Entertainment. That never happened.’”
Shelton Benjamin: There Were Plans For Hurt Business To Return
Shelton Benjamin also revealed that the Hurt Business was planned to return at one point.
However, despite talks of the return and even dates being set, the whole thing was simply abandoned.
“There was definitely conversation and planning for the Hurt Business to make a return. And then things just changed,” Shelton Benjamin said. ”They set dates, the dates changed and things changed. And then suddenly it was like, “Nope, we’re just not doing it. And that was… that was a kick in the balls [laughs].”
