9 Things WWE Experimented With On House Shows But Never Went With

7. The Minnesota Stretching Crew

Brock Lesnar Jesse Ventura
WWE.com

Before breaking onto the main WWE scene as a monster singles act in 2002, Brock Lesnar spent a couple of years tagging with college roommate Shelton Benjamin as The Minnesota Stretching Crew.

In 2001 and into 2002, Lesnar and Benjamin would be found tagging together on WWE live events and working dark matches at tapings for the likes of Sunday Night Heat and Jakked. Away from working these shows, of course, the duo were also a formidable team in Ohio Valley Wrestling.

The combination of Brock and Benjamin wasn’t just a casually thrown together pairing for a handful of matches, for the team had a spell of being a permanent fixture of OVW to the point where they won the developmental company’s Southern Tag Team Championship on three occasions.

Regardless of the close relationship between the two, regardless of the in-ring chemistry between the two, and regardless of how WWE used the Minnesota Stretching Crew at non-televised events and in dark matches, the call was made to break up the team and go hard with Lesnar as a singles star on the main roster.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.