{"id":27161,"date":"2016-07-26T19:46:27","date_gmt":"2016-07-27T00:46:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=27161"},"modified":"2016-07-26T20:39:37","modified_gmt":"2016-07-27T01:39:37","slug":"smackdown-live-shelton-benjamin-returning-wwe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2016\/07\/26\/smackdown-live-shelton-benjamin-returning-wwe\/","title":{"rendered":"Smackdown Live &#8211; Shelton Benjamin returning to WWE"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-3892250101\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p><strong>By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>One of the former WWE stars rumored to be coming back to WWE was confirmed Tuesday night on\u00a0Smackdown Live.<\/p>\n<p>Shelton Benjamin, the former U.S. and Intercontinental champion, will be returning to WWE TV on the Smackdown brand.<\/p>\n<p>WWE did not disclose Benjamin&#8217;s return date in a hype video highlighting his high-flying offense and memorable ladder match moments during his WWE run in the 2000s.<\/p>\n<p>Benjamin, now 41, has been wrestling mainly in Japan for New Japan and Pro Wrestling NOAH. Benjamin <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2016\/06\/12\/612-noah-tokyo-japan-results-go-shiozaki-vs-shelton-benjamin-ghc-hvt-title-k-e-s-challenges-ghc-tag-titles-njpw-stars-misawa-memorial-tribute\/\">recently challenged for NOAH&#8217;s\u00a0GHC Hvt. Title<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Benjamin also had a run in Ring of Honor teaming with Charlie Haas following his exit from WWE in 2010. Benjamin is now returning to a drastically different roster than when he left six years ago.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Congrats to <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Sheltyb803?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Sheltyb803<\/a> for his pending return to <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WWE?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@WWE<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SmackDownLive?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#SmackDownLive<\/a> <br \/>Best pure athlete in 2000 all star recruiting class. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Fgbrisco?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Fgbrisco<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Jim Ross (@JRsBBQ) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JRsBBQ\/status\/758098189408833536?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 27, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Shelton Benjamin is coming home to SmackDown Live: SmackDown Live, July 26, 2016\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dEVo4yGdMTY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-3220273993\"><div id=\"pwtor-485517343\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor One of the former WWE stars rumored to be coming back to WWE was confirmed Tuesday night on\u00a0Smackdown Live. Shelton Benjamin, the former U.S. and Intercontinental champion, will be <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2016\/07\/26\/smackdown-live-shelton-benjamin-returning-wwe\/\" title=\"Smackdown Live &#8211; Shelton Benjamin returning to WWE\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3516,1394,633,72,2872,71,117],"class_list":["post-27161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news_wwe","tag-july-26-smackdown","tag-live-smackdown","tag-shelton-benjamin","tag-smackdown","tag-smackdown-live","tag-wwe","tag-wwe-smackdown"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/SDlogo_3x2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27161"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27183,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27161\/revisions\/27183"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}