Brock Lesnar Was Recruited Right In Front Of Shelton Benjamin To Take His Spot At University of Minnesota

Brock Lesnar has always been a monster for his entire life. When he showed up in WWE as the Next Big Thing, that moniker was serious business. Even before then, he was a force to be reckoned with on the wrestling mat.

Before their time in WWE, Brock Lesnar and Shelton Benjamin had a connection through their amateur wrestling backgrounds. Both Lesnar and Benjamin attended the University of Minnesota, where they were part of the university’s wrestling program.

During their collegiate wrestling careers at the University of Minnesota, Lesnar and Benjamin became friends and training partners. They both achieved significant success in amateur wrestling, with Lesnar winning the NCAA Division I Heavyweight Championship in 2000, and Benjamin becoming an NCAA All-American.

While speaking to Chris Van Vliet, Shelton Benjamin spoke about how hot of a commodity Brock Lesnar was in high school. That being said, Lesnar was eventually recruited to take Benjamin’s spot.

“Yes, I do [remember] actually. And you know, it almost annoys me to tell the story. Because we were at a wrestling tournament in I want to say it was Fargo at you know, their university and Brock was still in junior college. And of course, we’re gonna say, you know, he’s hungry. And long story short, he won the tournament because I lost a match, and we would have wrestled, but he won the tournament; and he was a junior college kid and I just remember everyone who saw him was like you see that?”

“There’s never been a scrawny version of Brock that I saw. From the time we saw him he was rocking it, our coach was salivating to the point where after just because he was in junior college they started they immediately started recruiting him. So I’m kind of over in the corner like, you know, I’m your heavyweight, and you are recruiting another heavy right in front of me. But I mean, you see the guy, how would you not?”

Shelton Benjamin and Brock Lesnar were teamed up in OVW, but that team didn’t translate to the main roster. Brock Lesnar didn’t need a partner when he was finally called up to the bright lights of RAW and SmackDown. After all, he was a star from the get-go.

It seems that Shelton Benjamin is totally fine with how things turned out. After all, he had a great WWE career, one with a little break in the middle of his two runs, just like Brock Lesnar.

What’s your take on Brock Lesnar’s time in WWE? Sound off in the comments to let us know what you think!