WWE SmackDown: 4 Possible Opponents For John Cena

Shelton Benjamin

We haven’t seen Shelton Benjamin compete since Oct. 9, when he lost to AJ Styles on an episode of WWE SmackDown, just one week after The Miz hyped him up as he defeated Daniel Bryan.

Benjamin had his eyes on the prize when he first broke away from tag team partner Chad Gable this year, as Gable was traded to Raw during the Superstar Shakeup and has since won the Raw Tag Team Championships with Bobby Roode. (Note: Despite a close call or two, Gable never won the tag titles with Benjamin, who criticized Gable in his first heel promo without him.)

On Christmas Day, we saw Benjamin give his respect to Mustafa Ali for defeating Andrade “Cien” Almas a week after pinning the WWE Champion. That face-to-face interaction between Benjamin and Ali was quickly interrupted by Daniel Bryan, who attacked Ali from behind, likely setting up a rivalry between them in the build-up to the Royal Rumble.

However, Benjamin doesn’t have a set program, and while that handshake with Ali teases a potential confrontation between the two superstars, perhaps WWE could find something for Benjamin to do in the meantime. A one-off match with John Cena would create some nice feelings of nostalgia, given that they were two big stars in the “Ruthless Aggression” era and had a couple of battles on Raw over 10 years ago.

That’s a long enough time for this matchup to not feel stale and to be a positive throwback for the WWE Universe. Furthermore, Benjamin needs to remind the fans what he’s capable of in the ring as a veteran performer and one of the best technical wrestlers on the roster. Benjamin is established enough to be able to take a loss on SmackDown against someone of Cena’s caliber, and there’s little risk here.