Shelton Benjamin Spells Out His Biggest Regret About The Hurt Business’ WWE Run

During a recent interview with Chris Van Vliet on “Insight,” Shelton Benjamin reflected on his days in The Hurt Business and how special their faction was during the pandemic era.

“The Hurt Business, that will always be something I hold near and dear,” Benjamin said. “I consider it one of the greatest factions. I have nothing but love for The Hurt Business.”

Benjamin recalled WWE needing people to step up in 2020 as they had a limited roster. The company’s outlook was “the show must go on,” and he believes that every member of The Hurt Business — himself, Bobby Lashley, Cedric Alexander, and MVP — all rose to the occasion.

“All of us are extremely proud of what we were able to do, especially during that time when the company really needed something,” Benjamin continued. “It came out of nowhere. It was a surprise to all of us, and again, it was such a great time. The biggest regret is that we were never in front of a live audience.”

He added, “I think there are more books and novels for The Hurt Business, personally. As all things do, when things fell apart, I know none of us were happy about it. We did everything we could. It was above our pay grade, and our job is to perform. So that’s what we do. But we really, really wanted to just have that one time where we could walk out in front of an actual crowd.”

WWE opted to split The Hurt Business right before WrestleMania 37 — the first event with a live audience in over a year. The group never fully reformed despite rumblings that it would happen this year with Triple H in charge of WWE creative. Despite that, Benjamin remains in a tag team with Alexander.

Seth Rollins Credits WWE’s Pandemic Era For Roman Reigns’ Industry-Changing Heel Turn

Seth Rollins, Jon Moxley and Roman Reigns were a dominant force together in WWE as The Shield. But in the years since, Roman Reigns has become the face of the company. In a recent interview, Rollins shared his belief that both Reigns’ storyline and character came from an unexpected place.

“He really found his groove being ‘The Tribal Chief,’ this mob boss character.” Rollins said on Logan Paul’s podcast “Impaulsive.” Rollins said that Reigns was still very much learning during his time in their famed trio. As a result, post-Shield Reigns struggled to find an identity with Rollins citing Reigns’s lack of experience for his initial floundering in his singles career.

“One of the things that 2020 and 2021 gave us as an organization was an opportunity to do things we may not normally do,” Rollins explained, “because no one was watching TV at the time. We were still doing live shows every single week but we had a chance to play with our characters and take a risk.” Rollins said turning Reigns into a villain likely wouldn’t have happened without the experiments that took place in the WWE ThunderDome during the pandemic.

“It turned into one of the best possible outcomes for him and for the industry,” Rollins gushed. “If you look at the story arc of what The Bloodline and Roman Reigns have been over the past few years, it’s virtually unmatched.”

Rollins stated that being able to further a logical storyline in wrestling is often difficult as plans often change due to fan reaction, and also that he thinks he’s one of the few people that can dethrone the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion.