Shelton Benjamen- Should he stay or should he go?

[Destor]

Shelton Benjamin is an amazing athlete. At the high school level, he competed in American Football, wrestling, and athletics. Most impressive of these, however, is that he finished his wrestling career with a 122-10 win-loss record and was a two-time South Carolina State Heavyweight wrestling champion. He was quickly signed by WWE and has since become a 4-time OVW tag champion, 2-time WWE tag champion, and a 3-time WWE Intercontinental champion. Not only that but he is one of only four people to beat Triple H three times in a row and he is regularly called "the best pure athlete in the WWE" by JR. Not to shabby.

In doing this, he has shown off some decent ring psychology, some insane agility, shown an amazing technical ability, as well as many other compliments I could give him. He has achieved quite a bit; but since losing his first intercontinental championship after an 8-month reign, he has reached a bit of a plateau and not really done anything new. Not only that, but his credibility has been maimed. He has been turned into a momma's boy and more recently someone who believes his is being held back for being black (who cares about being PC). Neither of these has really aided his standing in the WWE hierarchy nor have they put him over as a top contender for any title, especially when combined with the fact he is regularly jobbed out for no reason.

This leads me to my questions:
Will Shelton Benjamin be a Main Event player? Or will Shelton Benjamin be another person to leave WWE for TNA?

So why hasn't Shelton moved onto being in top feuds yet? Because his microphone skills aren't good enough for Vince McMahon to believe he can be a top draw, thus hindering him from having have a good feud? Having charisma and being able to talk are all that you need to be able to be on top in the WWE, charisma he has plenty of, but his mic skills are VERY weak; you could just look at John Cena and see that mic skills + charisma + a good look = title run (although he can wrestle better than WWE lets him I would like to say.)

Yet there have been other wrestlers who couldn't really talk yet still made it to the top, Brock Lesnar, Big Show, and Goldberg; all of which are huge. Shelton can wrestle better than any of them he just isn't a very big wrestler as Vince wants everyone to be. This just makes me think that there really isn't any real reason why Shelton hasn't moved to the upper card yet.

Being small- Hart, Benoit, Jericho, HBK, Mysterio. None of those guys are tall. But they can work the stick (except Benoit and Mysterio by the WWE's standards.) So the hight/size barrier has been broken.

Can't work the mic- Lesnar, Goldberg, Mysterio, Yokozuna...you know what. It's a really long list, but most of them are HUGE. So I dunno. A top quality manager would remedy this though.

Black- I'm being serious. Booker has done it. A move to SD! could put him right at the top. So I don't think race is holding him back.

So there are precedents for all of his stigmas. So how might Shelton move up to being a top contender for the title? Shelton needs to develop some sort of 'X factor' which will separate him form the other wrestlers in the WWE. Big Show's rise was due to his size; no one really cared that he didn't talk much as they didn't want to see him talk; they wanted to see him squash everyone. I don't really know what he could come up with, but until he finds with this 'X factor' in my opinion, there are two things that could be done. Firstly, I think he needs to get himself a better finisher, as I don't believe that his T-bone (it's just a standing power slam really.) He used to use the 450 splash in OVW, but that is banned in WWE so he needs to use something new. I'm sure he can think of something better, something that fits his style better. Secondly, he could get himself a manager; not a momma like he already has done, a manager that will build him up as a top-notch wrestler, a man that deserves to hold the title. Teddy Long would be perfect if he wasn't GM on SD!

However, if SOMETHING doesn't happen then I would expect Shelton to get fed up of being underused and being thrown into another dead end angle. Just like many other wrestlers, most notably Christian Cage who also had had great charisma but never got anywhere, and maybe rightfully so. Moving to TNA could be very tempting for Shelton, it will allow him to show us his full potential while competing in either the heavyweight division or in the X Division. I would prefer the X-Division, slowly working his way up to the top. Did you know that Shelton used the 630 on occasion in OVW? The TNA marks love that kind of shit. In TNA making it to the top would be VERY simple for a guy like Benjamin, they focus more on the quality of the wrestling over how well they can work the stick. His size wont hold him back there (I mean come on, AJ "midget" Styles is king there,) and after several wasted years in the WWE, he might not want to stay. Several other wrestlers have jumped, they are giving good money to anyone who wants to defect, and Kurt loves him. Which would translate into a title feud almost guaranteed.

Overall, I think it is clear that Shelton Benjamin is probably one of the most underrated wrestlers on the WWE roster along with a few others and only time will let us know what is going to happen. He could go either way, and personally I think that time may be sooner than later.