Shelton Benjamin's return to ECW: ain't no stoppin' it...now!

Vince McMahon has been showing great amounts of frustration lately. As it turns out, president Bonnie Hammer of USA Networks is getting on Vince's case about the lack of new and different stars on the WWE. She not only said that Cena, HHH, and Orton are the top stars of Raw, but also suggested that Ric Flair be put on Smackdown in an attempt to increase its star-power. So, how does Vince react? He puts a celebrity in charge of Raw, be it a wrestling legend, or an actual celebrity in an attempt to appease Ms. Hammer. Now, this move has received good, ok, and even bad ratings on Raw's standards, and with more on the way, it's safe to say that it will be around for a while. Regardless, Vince is still very frustrated over the idea, as he has yet to realize that hot-shot booking will never solve a problem of this caliber. What does all of this have to do with Shelton Benjamin? Well, you see, Shelton is one of the many stars in the WWE today that has all the talent to be a top star but has never been realized as such since being here in the WWE. Vince can get mad about the lack of new stars, but he still fails to see the potential in the stars he's had for 5 years that he should have made top stars a while ago. Instead of getting angry at why there aren't any new stars, he should be looking at himself and his staff and asking why he didn't push certain stars in the first place. Shelton's reason? He gets complacent, gets lazy and doesn't make the concerted effort to become a bigger star through better character development, increased mic skills, and strengthened charisma. Now, those faults my very well be all Shelton's doing. But, who's to say that the reason behind all of that is due to the atmosphere he is wrestling in? Who's to say that the WWE has made him the way he is today? It's pretty hard to want to get over when there are too many signs around you saying that it's pointless. So, let's have a look at Shelton's run as a WWE star, in brief if possible and see the various ups and downs that may have played a key in his return to ECW.

It started sometime in late 2002 and early 2003 when Shelton Benjamin was teamed with Charlie Haas to join Kurt Angle's group, Team Angle. They represented a collection of the finest amateur wrestlers in the WWE at the time, boasting excellent wrestling records on the mat before hitting the squared circle. A little later, Haas and Benjamin branched out on their own to become "The World's Greatest Tag Team" continuing their winning ways as a unit, until the 2004 WWE Draft. It was at this event that Shelton got his first full push to single's wrestling. He became the #1 draft pick for Raw, and before the night ended, in his first Raw match and first encounter, pinned Triple H. He pinned the former World Champion a few weeks after he lost the belt at WM XX. It was the biggest win of his career. This was nothing short of impressive, right? Well, knowing that HHH doesn't just job to anyone, we learned that this was his throwing Shelton a bone at the express consent of the creative crew and other higher-ups. Shelton continued his winning ways against Hunter until he lost his first match against him sometime in the fall of 2004. After this, he was placed in an IC title match at the first Taboo Tuesday event (which was later named Cyber Sunday and is now called Bragging Rights) where he had an incredible match with Chris Jericho, that was virtually un-rehearsed. Shelton would go on to be IC champion from October of 2004 to June of 2005, losing his belt to Carlito. This is where the downturn began...

Shortly after losing the title, Shelton lost a lot of steam as well, being passed over on Raw for many other Raw stars. Then, all of a sudden, Shelton's mother appeared on television (well, his actual mom appeared years ago. This one was a comedian named Thea Vidale). She was dressed to look like your typical African American mother, straight out of something you'd see in a Tyler Perry film. All she did was pretty much embarrass Shelton, correct Shelton, and at times, help Shelton win matches. We were treated to a slew of idiotic vignettes with Shelton's mama and Viscera as well as a bunch of pathetic jokes from Jerry Lawler (how he got so corny, I'll never know). Soon enough, Shelton's mama was, in reality, taken off of television for health reasons, leaving Shelton with nothing to do, literally being forgotten from television. Sure, he popped up here and there, complaining about not getting an opportunity because he was, well, Black, but that really wasn't much.

So, what did Shelton do? Easy. He just fought his one-time partner, Charlie Haas when he returned in 2007, and lost against him. Later on, they re-teamed, with Shelton dyeing his hair blond in an attempt to freshen up his look. Since then, his hair has been blond, but the team didn't last long. Once again, the steam started to dwindle. To make matters worse, Shelton randomly debuted on ECW that year, calling himself "The Gold Standard". He wanted to show the world that he was the best wrestler in the WWE and the true standard to wrestling with his athleticism. He had some matchups, good and bad, barely received any ECW title shots, and was finding his own niche as a star. Then, he was called up to Smackdown. From there, he went on to have some stellar mid-card matches, and secured the U.S. title for a time. He even had a very impressive match against the Undertaker. However, after the recent draft, he once again found himself teaming with Haas and even Ricky Ortiz, leaving him out of singles action. Just great.

As for the latest on Shelton, well, he was involved in a 15 superstar trade that sent him right back to ECW. His highlights include a short feud with newcomer, Yoshi Tatsu, in which Shelton won, a sound victory over the current ECW champion, Christian, which should have propelled Shelton into the title picture, a short period of time where he wasn't even on ECW television, and now, a running feud with Zack Ryder which involved a rather boring segment on the Abraham Washington Show (the fans were booing it like crazy) and Shelton Benjamin singing songs. Does that sound like the top flight athlete you expect Shelton to be? It doesn't to me.

Now, you're probably wondering how this all could have been possible. Quite honestly, there was an elephant in the room that I neglected to mention during the downturn in 2005 and onward. See, the word backstage was that Shelton, as talented as he is, wasn't doing anything to get himself over. He was being complacent. He was being stagnant in his match delivery, promo delivery, and all-around performance. He got lazy, for a lack of a better term. He wasn't trying his best to make himself a standout star. Sure, anyone can dye their hair, but what does that do for you in the long run? Since this was the case, the WWE stopped pushing him. In fact, based on what I wrote and saw, and even on the match outcomes I witnessed, Shelton was getting buried by the WWE as punishment for his problem. Although this might have been well-founded, there are two ways to see it, in my view.

Ok, in all honesty, Shelton should show a concerted effort to make himself a big star on WWE television. This is the largest wrestling organization in the world today. It gets the most viewers in wrestling today, and even in history. If you're given a chance to showcase your stuff on WWE television, you have to try and hit it out of the park. From wrestlers with little talent to wrestlers with plenty of talent, everyone has a chance to make a big deal of themselves. You don't just get a spot in the WWE out of nowhere. Ok, maybe that's not always the case for any of the things I said, but if the company has enough faith in you to do great things, then you have to make due.

Now, here's the other side of the coin. The word is that Shelton is lazy and not motivated. Well, let's just take a look at what he has to deal with. There's politics backstage, mostly perpetrated by HHH, to make sure he and his friends stay on top. There's backstabbing, underhanded actions, simony and nepotism. Wrestlers can't get over sometimes because any and all creative ideas about them get shut down by Vince McMahon. The writing staff is stuck writing the same pointless drivel that we see every week, consisting of shallow, ridiculous humor that a 7 year old would find funny. This is usually the case because there's nothing but 7-year-old kids in the audience. Extremely talented wrestlers get fired for one reason or another, while the not-so-talented keep their jobs for one stupid reason or another. The reason: the talented wrestler has no creative ideas happening for them at the time, while the not-so-talented are always in the spotlight with no creative ideas whatsoever always happening for them. Throw in the fact that people are all in fear of getting fired half the time and you have a very unsafe work environment. For crying out loud, they have guest celebrities hosting Raw, that usually leads to some of the crappiest booking you can think of. Never mind the wrestlers who pitch ideas for themselves to get noticed or the young stars that you were planning to push. Let's just focus on people who not only have nothing to do with wrestling, but have no business being in a wrestling ring. You tell me if you can be motivated to do more than just "go through the motions". By the way, Shelton is not alone in this problem as Carlito has been blamed of this as well. Yet, how many of his pushes have been destroyed to push Cena, HHH or Batista, or any other wrestler? If anything, that is the main reason for Shelton's general malaise towards wrestling. It's hard to wrestle thinking you can go somewhere, when the only place you go is down and away from the main event picture. It's annoying, ridiculous, and rather unfair.

In a nutshell, Shelton's career has been mired with shortened pushes, ridiculous gimmicks, some choice title wins and his own company not having enough faith in him to do more with his career, The pundits knew he's a top flight athlete and wanted the best of him. But, according to them, he's too lazy to make something more of himself. So, he's stuck in mediocrity on ECW hoping to be a big fish in a small pond. The problem? He's still a small fish. In truth, there really is no stopping Shelton Benjamin from being more than the best. The only thing is, he already has proven that he has the goods to be the best. So, why isn't he the best? Is it the fact that he doesn't want to work to be better, or is it because no matter how hard he works, he'll never be as good as he wants to be? Maybe he's getting held down because he already figured that last part out and the pundits feared that he'd spread that message. Who really knows? All I know is that Shelton Benjamin is one of, if not, the single most talented person in the WWE and he's stuck dwindling into obscurity. That's not quite a gold standard to live by. Heck, that's not even a bronze medal....