Shelton Benjamin spoke with ESPN on changing up matches based on the crowd’s response, calling matches on the fly, and who he trusts today to call it in the ring. Here are some of the highlights:
Learning from Eddie and Chavo Guerrero on how to call matches in the ring:
“For the first eight months, we [Benjamin and Charlie Haas] were working with Eddie and Chavo Guerrero, and they would hide from us during the live events. They didn’t want to call matches because that was old school, and that was how they came up. Eventually they got fed up with us and we had one of those ‘coming to Jesus’ meetings. We told them they didn’t need to tell us spot-for-spot, but we just don’t know the things you’re trying to do. Eddie, who was always the captain of the ship said, ‘You guys are right, and I need to be a better captain.’ He started teaching us the spots. So the next six months we never planned anything. We just showed up and had a great time in the ring. The rest of the art is just being familiar with who you’re in the ring with.”
Wrestlers not adjusting the match based on the crowd’s response and giving an example of Christian (who’s from Ontario, Canada) trying to play a heel in Canada:
“Guys are so reliant on planning a match, to go out and do their plan, regardless of crowd response. Sometimes you gotta go out and call audibles. You need to say ‘this ain’t working’ and change it up. … Christian was trying to turn the fans on him during a promo, but they cheered him even louder. We decided that he was the babyface and I became the heel. Right on the fly, we switched the match.”
Who he trusts now to call matches in the ring:
“There are only a few people in WWE that I would trust having a good match with to just call it in the ring: Randy Orton, John Cena, AJ Styles, Brock Lesnar and Shinsuke Nakamura.”
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