At WrestleMania 21, in the first Money in the Bank ladder match ever contested, Shelton Benjamin took a running start, climbed a ladder like it was a staircase, and cleared the ring with a clothesline in mid-air. People are still showing that clip to new fans twenty years later. It is the shorthand for what he has always been, which is one of the best pure athletes the business has produced.

He was a two-time All-American at the University of Minnesota, a junior college national champion before that, and a training partner to Brock Lesnar on the way up. In WWE he won the Intercontinental Championship three times, and his first reign lasted 244 days, the longest anyone held that title for nearly two decades. He added the United States Championship for another 243 days, won tag team gold with Charlie Haas as The World's Greatest Tag Team, then spent seven years proving himself around the world, including a celebrated run in New Japan Pro Wrestling.

He returned to WWE in 2017, won Raw Tag Team gold, and became a cornerstone of The Hurt Business. Today he is one third of The Hurt Syndicate in AEW and a former AEW World Tag Team Champion with Bobby Lashley. The nickname he gave himself decades ago still fits. The Gold Standard.