Benjamin mentions that his OVW graduating class was really special. He considers it to be the greatest class of all time, featuring talents like John Cena, Randy Orton, Brock Lesnar and Batista. Victoria and Jazz were just a couple of the females that were in his class as well. He points out that all of them felt over-prepared for their jump to the main roster, and everyone was very supportive of one another.
He points out that he wasn’t sure if all of those talents were going to make it initially. At first he thought Orton might end up getting fired, and Batista was injured quite frequently, making him think that Batista was fragile. He was soon proven very wrong on both of those fronts. He points out that Orton’s dropkick was so beautiful at that time that he stopped doing dropkicks because he couldn’t do them as well as Orton.
He informs that he knew right away after hearing Cena talk that he was going to make a huge impact in the business. Some people consider Cena to be one of the all-time great talkers now, but Benjamin mentions that Cena was just as good back then. He asked Cena at that time what made him so good on the mic, and Cena mentions he’d spend hours talking to himself in front of a mirror.
Benjamin notes that the physical aspect of the business came very easily to him, and he was never nervous before big matches early on. He realized quickly what it meant to work against main-event-level performers, because working guys like Triple H was always easier and it felt like a night off for him. The only time he ever got nervous was working his first match against Ric Flair and Undertaker because he idolized those men.
