Shelton Benjamin

I want the one thing that has eluded me, the WWE Championship.

I've been a pro wrestler for longer than anything else in my life.

I grew up playing video games, especially the wrestling video games. I've always been a wrestling fan, I've always been a video game fan, so you put the two together and it's a no-brainer.

Hands down, I'm a god amongst men when it comes to video games. I walk over everybody.

I'm not really into online gaming because I like to talk smack to guys when I play. I like to see the disappointment in their faces as they sit across from me.

My heart's with wrestling. I had a future in football, but I passed it up.

I'm the longest reigning Intercontinental Champion of the 2010s. Live with it, hate it, be mad, there is only one thing you can do and that's deal with it.

Athletically I had a lot of gifts... The problem is, when you have a lot of gifts, natural gifts, and you're somewhat successful, you tend to get lazy.

I'm not trying to build a name, I have a name, but I want to be where I'm appreciated and featured and can have some fun.

The Hurt Business, that will always be something I hold near and dear. I consider it one of the greatest factions.

I have nothing but love for The Hurt Business.

I lifted Big Show once and I'm like, 'if I can lift him, I'm good.'

I put work above everything, which is probably why I never got married.

I've never been a WWE Champion or anything like that. But, I'm memorable. And that was my goal. Make me do stuff when you go out, get an emotional reaction and make sure they'll remember it.

I don't compare myself to Brock.

Honestly, I'd be limiting myself if I compared myself to Brock.

First of all, Brock is a different animal. You don't compare a lion to a jaguar. We're just different animals in that aspect.

I don't have an expiration date.

You look at guys like Goldberg, how old is he? Way older than me. We work a very different style, but father time knows no style.

I can't be bitter; I had a good career.

I won many titles, I had a lot of great matches, made a lot of great friends. Overall I'm very happy with what I accomplished while in the WWE.

It's weird to be the foreign guy in the locker room.

When you're in pro wrestling you want to do things that are memorable, I don't want to be just on the roster and yeah have a nice long career, good, bad or negative but people are talking about you in our world.

I tell people all the time: one of the cool things with Brock is you never have to wonder where you stand with him because he'll tell you, he'll show you. He either wants nothing to do with you or you're good friends.

I actually had a lot of fun in Ring of Honor.

I'll be quite honest, New Japan rejuvenated my love for wrestling and the wrestling culture.

I don't compare myself with only African-Americans... I do not grade myself on a color scheme.

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.

I didn't see a lot of WWE, so for me, Hulk Hogan was the other guy. Ric Flair was the man.

In my world, Ric Flair is and was the greatest world champ ever.

The Rock 'n Roll Express, that duo made me fall in love with wrestling.

When someone is giving you wisdom, the source can come from anywhere.

You're never too old to learn something new.

I've always followed Brock. I've always kept an eye on his career because as a teammate and as a friend, you know, that's my boy.

Kofi Kingston and I have had some great matches in the past.

That might surprise people how actually cool Brock can be if he likes you - key words if he likes you.

Well, yes, everyone knows the Brock Lesnar persona. Now, if Brock is your friend, he will give you the shirt off his back nice guy in the world, fun and cool to hang around with.

Brock is not playing a role. Brock is Brock. What you're seeing that's real.

I've performed in Afghanistan, South Africa, Australia, Japan, Korea, Singapore, South America, Canada and a few other places - Italy. It's really hard for me to think of places I haven't been.

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.

There are tons of times - people don't even recognize it - that we get hurt in the ring, but we're such professionals and most of us have such pride in what we do that even when we're hurt, we still go on.

To me, pro wrestlers are the toughest athletes, period. And I say this very proudly, and I say this because unlike any other sport or entertainment profession, we don't have an off-season.

When you're in WWE, you really don't focus on the other somewhat large promotions because, 'hey, I'm already with the king of the mountain. Why do I need to pay attention to those?'

I can do anything and everything at the tip of a hat.

Brock Lesnar is my family.

WWE never made me any promises just gave me an opportunity to make money.

Do I think I should have been a World Champion, hell yes! Was I underutilized? Without a doubt. Do I have issue with WWE? No!

I like to inspire people.

People are gonna tune in just to see David Otunga just to see if he's good or bad. Jennifer Hudson's husband is a pro wrestler. That's gonna draw and it will be foolish on the part of WWE not to take advantage of that. Do I think him being married to Jennifer Hudson helps? Without a doubt.

Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas are never lax.