Posted on 9/11/125 by Colin Vassallo
MVP sat down with Chris Van Vliet in Las Vegas, Nevada to
discuss leaving WWE in 2024 and signing with AEW, reuniting
The Hurt Syndicate, how close he came to becoming World
Champion, his signature entrance tunnel, his emotional
reaction to Kofi Kingston winning the WWE Championship at
WrestleMania 35, and more!
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.”