During a recent edition of his “The Hawk’s Nest” podcast, AEW wrestler Lance Archer commented on Shelton Benjamin recently joining AEW as part of The Hurt Syndicate.
Additionally, Archer commented on what it was like working with Benjamin as part of the WWE ECW brand in 2009. He said,
“[He was] always just an amazing athlete. You’ve seen the matches he’s had over his entire career. There’s stories of him being able to walk the ropes [without help]. … I heard a story where he just, for fun — and I don’t think this was during a match, I think it was training — but he just walked all four corners.”
During a recent edition of the “Talk Is Jericho” podcast, Big Bill commented on his match with HOOK that took place on an episode of AEW Collision prior to the AEW All In: London 2024 pay-per-view event at Wembley Stadium.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On fans in Cardiff, Wales starting to cheer him: “Very out of nowhere. We were out there earlier in the night for [Jericho vs. Tommy Billington]. When I was in the ring with HOOK, the crowd went crazy. I think a lot of things went into that. I have a lot of equity with the fans, especially the UK. I’ve been (on TV) with NXT since 2014, so ten years they’ve been seeing me. They’ve seen my journey. They’ve seen the ups, they’ve seen the downs, they’ve seen the real real downs, and they’ve seen my comeback from those. They’re kind of saying to me, ‘Hey brother, we respect what you’re doing. We love you. Even though you’re a heel, we have to let you know that we know what you’ve been through, we know where you come from, and we’re happy for you.’ I think that was a big portion of it.”
On how they were cheering while he was playing the heel: “They start cheering for me and I’m like, ‘What is going on?’ They’re getting louder and louder, and I’m really trying to play heel. The whole point of the match is to set up HOOK as the uber babyface going into [All In]. It would not stop. I kept pulling every trick that I could. There was one point where we went to the floor, and I had HOOK, I said to him, ‘Don’t worry, I’m going to get them to switch.’ It was 100%, I was going to get them. I went in the ring and all I wanted to do was pretend that I loved their admiration and then flip them off. They just cheered even louder. That was an ego check for me, because I thought for sure, ‘I got this.’ They wouldn’t go with it. After that, I was like, ‘Ah, sh*t.’”
On how he felt about the reaction: “You feel appreciated, which is nice, but you’re also in the middle of a match where the goal is to get HOOK babyfaced going into [All In], and it’s not working. You want to bask in it, but also you have to get back on track. After they rushed the barricades and I pulled every rabbit out of the hat that I could think of, and it didn’t work, I was just like, ‘Alright, whatever.’”
Chris Jericho on the reaction: “I remember thinking, this is like a Twilight Zone thing, if you could pause life and rewind it a bit, I would have said, ‘Let’s make this for the world championship and put Big Bill over.’ It would have been the biggest reaction ever.”
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