Forever Forward Fridays

Shelton Benjamin VS Mike Santana - Prestige Wrestling 7/12/2024

CJD: I wasn't sure if I was going to play this one forward. There's some awkward moments and I wish Prestige didn't telegraph that the finish of their uploads is just about to happen. I like everything else about their production, and I know it's for music rights. But still!! This match won out for me though because it had a really fun energy. In some ways it reminded me of a  2002 ROH undercard. Random pairings you don't know what to expect from that hit at least a couple of really memorable highlight kinda moments. And get you genuinely invested by the end to see who wins and how. So basically good bread and butter indies wrestling. Steaming hot rolls with a nice warm cup of soup on a crisp October morning. You get what I'm laying down JJZ?? I'm very tired this morning but I enjoyed this match with my thermos of coffee as a little pick me up and I think you'll enjoy it too.

JJZ: Man you are right. I could totally picture this at the Murphy Rec Center. Definitely a little clumpy at times but entertaining as fuck. The crowd wasn't packed but I got the feeling from them that they appreciated the effort Santana and Benjamin put forth. They did a good job of building to the big pop moments. Showing off good fundamental wrestling early. I've been a fan of Mike Santana since seeing him in AEW. Feel like be he always over performed when I didn't expect him to. Nice little yin and yang over these last couple matches.

Forever Forward Fridays

Shelton Benjamin (c) VS MVP - WWE United States Championship 3/20/2009

JJZ: Babycakes. Finding an MVP match was so much harder than I thought it would be. The options were so few which kinda shocked me. I know WWE is not FFF material but highlighting Benjamin and MVP is totally worth playing a WWE match forward. This is definitely a shotgun of a match with high energy and a hot crowd. Both Shelton and MVP have insane athleticism and going at a frantic pace even for a short amount of time showcased that. I was impressed that they were able to get me with a couple falsies. Just a fun little watch homie.

CJD: The Hurt Business Implodes!!! I almost played a Shelton/Masters match forward to you weeks back, so I'm glad the Gold Standard is still getting his due. This match really brought it. They laid that shit in, but also showed nice restraint trying to get the most out of each moment. There were a few times where they could have brought the crowd up a little more but they kept it going to a steady climax in a short amount of time. JR and Taz is an odd couple duo but they did a good job getting this one over. I expected to like this one a lot, and it still exceeded my expectations. If you've got 10 minutes to burn and want to watch two guys lay it all out in a championship clash, this match is your huckleberry.

Ain't No Stoppin Him, NOW

Go Shiozaki (c) VS Shelton Benjamin - NOAH GHC Heavyweight Championship 6/12/2016

CJD: I can't say I ever dreamed of Shelton in a half hour GHC Title match. Definitely not playing to his strengths. And I know there's a very good chance you've already seen this match. But I was in the mood for Shelton in NOAH and of the matches I had available to me this one definitely raised my eyebrows. There's good and bad to this match. Let's get the bad news out of the way first. Terrible crowd as was typical in this period. Video gets choppy or out of sync a few times. And there's just a little bit of a rough feel to how they build to and deliver a lot of big spots. I wouldn't say these guys have great chemistry. But, Benjamin looks surprisingly comfortable in this setting, and is a very game challenger for an all-time great Champion. Go is a kind of divisive figure, I think the people that are hard on him can't get past the sometimes iffy execution and the blatant Kobashi emulation. For me his selling, his supreme effort, and his general charisma outweigh those criticisms. This match has all that on display. And I guess that's the good news. Is that for any negatives you'd expect, this match has all the positives you want to. Hard hitting, hard work, big bumps, nice twists and turns. This is the NOAH Ace defending against the invading heel through and through. It won't go down as one of the greats but for an interesting footnote in both guys' careers I thought they did a damn fine job.

JJZ: Chris my beautiful friend. You are so far in my wheelhouse with this match I'm going to have to ask you to please take your shoes off and have a seat. I have seen this match before and remember liking it a lot. Shelton really had some good matches in NOAH. One with Nakajima that I even played for our mutual wrestling friends. I did play the match that Go won the title for this defense against Sugiura for you before and this was his first defense of that championship run. One thing I really liked about this era of Go was that he wasn't quite the Ace at this time. He was in a proving his loyalty to NOAH phase being that he just returned from AJPW. When Sugiura turned on Marufuji a few months back Maru turned down Go's help and refused to shake his hand. I loved NOAH in 2016 and matches like this are a big reason. This played way better than I remembered. Shelton hit a lot of big "oh shit!" spots. The knee in the corner, that German and that table spot.  Go worked from under excellently. Really nice crowd popping spots with explosive energy. Now the crowd wasn't the best but it was better than a lot of NOAH crowds during this time. I enjoyed the fuck out of this one baby cakes. And I already know what I'm playing next!

The Heat Is Here

Stevie Richards VS Shelton Benjamin - WWE Heat 10/11/2004

JJZ: So my mindset finding a Stevie Richards match was simple: ECW. That mindset changed after one search. Man there is little to nothing available from ECW for Stevie up for streaming. This lead me down a pretty interesting journey to this match. Right off the bat, this ain't winning no match of the night awards. What I enjoyed about this match and all the matches I've watched from Stevie is his fundamentals. He has such a great base to his matches. I'd say this match is a great example of that and made him and Shelton look great. Told a complete story in seven minutes and had the crowd hooked. Well done boys.

CJD: Love me some Sunday night HEAT. You weren't kidding about how they hooked the UK crowd in this one! It's amazing to me that even with a very respectable career Shelton Benjamin was never a bigger star. His promo skills have never been great but I'd love to see him in the UWF with Percy Pringle managing him as the top babyface chasing a heel Champ. Something like that. Anyway. This match was good! I know Stevie was in Right To Censor but I don't remember watching a ton of him as a straight up heel like this. Dare I say I like him better in this role than as a babyface. Just personal preference. This match isn't one to pick apart but for 7 minutes of really competent pro wrestling with cringeworthy mid 2000s commentary you won't find much better!