MVP Reveals Why WWE Wouldn’t Put World Title On Him, Why He Jumped From WWE To AEW & More

MVP appeared on INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling.

During the discussion, The Hurt Syndicate member spoke about his WWE return in 2020, how close he became to being world champion, leaving WWE for AEW and more.

Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview where he touches on these topics with his thoughts. Also below is a complete video archive of the discussion.

On his WWE return in 2020: “I got to be one of the surprise entrants in the 2020 Royal Rumble. And my son was in the crowd. It’s so cool, because he even made it into one of the highlight commercials where you just see him going, ‘Yeah!’ That gave me something emotionally, because I never wanted to be a dad. I wanted to be single forever, my son was an oops, and now I’m so grateful for him in my life, because he makes me a better human being, and to be able to share that with him. And Rey Mysterio was his favorite wrestler, so after that, we went into the back and Rey being the just incredible human being that he is, took some time to pull my son to the side and gave him a mask, and he spoke for a minute. After that, Paul Heyman asked me if I could make it to San Antonio the next day. And I was like, Yeah, sure. Easy pay, quick drive. I went and again, Paul E booked me to be in a match with Rey Mysterio on Raw, just a cool match. I wasn’t even under contract, but my son’s mother sent me a video of my son standing underneath the television during my entrance, so my son got to watch daddy wrestle his favorite wrestler. And again, that’s all I wanted. That was it. And then after my match, Laurinaitis just pulled me to the side and said, ‘Hey, we want to offer you a position as a producer.’ And at that point, I was contemplating retirement anyway, I just felt like getting pretty close to the end here, and we talked about it and what the ins and outs would be. And I said, let’s give it a shot. Let’s see what happens. And I enjoyed it. It was pretty cool, the creative process and learning about how that machine works.”

On how close he came to becoming World Champion in WWE: “I don’t know this for an absolute fact, because I wasn’t in on the meeting, but I was told by some people that were. As a matter of fact, one of the writers, [said] there was talk about MVP being World Heavyweight Champion, but there was reservations because of my felony conviction. So for those of your viewers who don’t know, when I was a teenager, I was coming up in Miami, rough gang violence. I was an armed robber, I did a robbery, and I ended up going to prison for several years. Nine and a half years. I served from 16 to 26. [Originally sentenced to] 18 and a half with a mandatory three for the sawed off shotgun, meaning for three years you can’t get time off for good behavior. And consequently, it was as a result of that, when I was at work release, getting out of prison, I met a correctional officer [called] Primetime Daryl D. He was an indie worker, and that’s how I got into the business. Because he would bring in videotapes for us to watch in the morning before they would open up the center to let us go to work. So guys couldn’t leave till 7, so it’d be like, 10 15 minutes, people just kind of milling around. And he’d bring in tapes. And I would be like, Hey, man, how do you guys do that without really killing each other? And he’s like, ‘Well, I see you out there playing basketball, working out. You got a good physique. You’re athletic. When you get out, if you want to give it a try, I’ll show you something.’ So that’s how I broke into wrestling. But going back to my conviction, it was at work release that I met the correctional officer who introduced me to my career. But now I’m a convicted felon.”

So they didn’t want to make you the World Heavyweight Champion? “Because there were potentially countries that I couldn’t get into. So how can you be the World Heavyweight Champion, but you can’t go to this country? Like going to Japan. Japan is very strict about people who [can enter], like James Brown, they wouldn’t let into Japan. But because I went over for a Japanese company, they were able to smooth it over with the visa process. Canada. I couldn’t get into Canada for a long time. I had to go through a process there where people had to write letters of recommendation. It costs 1000s of dollars in legal fees to get something in Canada. They call it a letter of rehabilitation. They said, Okay, you’re rehabilitated. You can come to Canada. You always have to bring this letter with you, because if they ask, ‘Have you been convicted of a felony?’ And I say ‘Yes, but here’s my letter of rehabilitation.’ Then I can get in. Australia, the last time I went to Australia was with Tommy Dreamer’s House of Hardcore. It literally took an act of Congress, and at the 12th hour, some Parliament official, nobody wanted to sign off on my document to let me in. And somebody knew somebody, and some member of parliament or whatever, signed off on it, and I was able to get in Australia. Now England, the United Kingdom, just started the electronic transfer authorization, and they ask the question, ‘Have you been convicted of a felony that required you to have a 12-month stay or longer in a correction?’ Well, yeah, I did nine and a half years. So I answered truthfully, and that’s why I wasn’t allowed in for Forbidden Door. So coming full circle, as it was told to me, there was a conversation about me being a World Champion. But there were reservations because of my convicted felony.”

On leaving WWE for AEW: “Everybody knows that The Hurt Business got shut down in WWE for reasons that have never been made clear to me. No one has ever said, and I begged Vince, Bobby begged Vince, please don’t do this. Vince had his ideas of what he wanted to do, and everybody genuinely agrees that we got shut down way too soon. So when it came time for our contracts, I made it very clear that I don’t want to be there anymore. There are people there in management that I dislike immensely, a person, and I won’t even bother to get into that. But I just knew that with certain people in charge, and that’s how the wrestling game is, that’s how life is. I don’t care where you work. When management changes, some people are out, other people are in, and I knew it was time to go. I wasn’t gonna re-sign. I was in Bobby’s ear constantly like ‘Don’t re-sign. Shelton got released. Don’t re-sign. Let’s you me and Sheldon get back together. Let’s go to AEW. I know we can go to AEW and we can pick this thing back up.’ I’m grateful to Tony Khan for seeing the value in us and giving us an opportunity to come over there and continue to tell our story and help some of these younger talents. Because contrary to what the internet tells you, there are a lot of young guys that come up and ask us for advice and ask us to watch their matches and ask us for insight, and I love being able to pay it forward because people gave it to me. So thank you to Tony Khan for seeing something in us and believing in us and giving us an opportunity to end The Hurt Syndicate in AEW, and for us to finish telling our story.”