As noted, Shelton Benjamin was supposed to return to WWE as part of the SmackDown Live brand last year, but things were put on hold when he underwent the standard WWE physical and learned that he had a torn rotator cuff. Benjamin’s expected recovery time is to be around six months so he should be returning during WrestleMania season.
There has been some speculation online about Benjamin making his WWE return as a surprise entrant in the 2017 Royal Rumble match that takes place later this month. He took to Twitter to shot down those rumors. He posted the following:
Recovery is going well. Still months away from anything physical so all the RR predictions are as accurate as they've been the last 6 years https://t.co/eb6q2YbEsJ
— Shelton J. Benjamin (@Sheltyb803) January 6, 2017