An AEW star got emotional when he gave insights into his relationship with Chris Benoit.
Benoit’s legacy has been erased by WWE due to the murder-suicide incident involving him and his family. However, a major side effect of that tragedy is that it also took away a part of his opponent’s legacy. Such is the case with MVP, who won the United States Championship by defeating Benoit.
Speaking in an interview with Chris Van Vliet, the AEW star was asked about this significant match being erased, to which he replied that he and Benoit had a close relationship. MVP stated that Benoit was his favorite wrestler and recalled how he met him for the first time.
He shared how The Rabid Wolverine gave him his address and asked him to send a DVD of his matches—and provided feedback on the same. MVP said Benoit always checked up on him while he was in the indies, and the former WWE Heavyweight Champion’s opinion mattered a lot to him:
“Well, it’s weird because Chris Benoit and I had a really close relationship. A lot of people don’t realize. He was my favorite wrestler, and I was an extra one day, and, you know, I used Norman Smiley, who’s one of my friends and mentors, as an in, and I said, ‘Hey, you know, Norman said say hi,’ and I said, ‘Do you mind if I pick your brain for a little bit?’ And he’s like, ‘Yeah, yeah, sure, after I eat, let’s go up in the bleachers and talk.’
He said, ‘Well, before we start, let me ask you who are some of your favorite wrestlers?’ And at the time, like, Japanese wrestling was my thing, so when I told him that, you know, he just goes, ‘F**k yeah.’ He said, ‘All right,’ you know, because sometimes I ask people and they’re like, you know, Ultimate Warrior. I’m like, ‘Get the f**k out of here.’
You know, but he gave me his address and told me to send him a DVD with some matches, and I was like, ‘Well, this is like you’re an actor asking De Niro to check out your clips.’ And he didn’t just watch it, he took notes. So, a couple of weeks later, when we spoke, he went over, you know, and was telling me this and that. At the time, I was really like over on the South Florida indie scene, but I wasn’t really getting booked to go to different places, and it just seemed like nothing was happening for me.
I was married at the time, and I told my wife, I said, ‘Man, am I the guy that sucks but doesn’t know it? Am I that guy?’ You know, because everybody, there’s that guy who sucks, and he doesn’t know he sucks. He thinks he’s good, you know. And my ex-wife, she said, ‘If Chris Benoit says you suck, you going to let this go?’ I said, ‘If he says I suck, I’m done.’
And when we had the conversation after he watched my matches, I said, ‘So, I don’t suck?’ ‘F**k no, you don’t suck, man. You’re just green, man. You’re going to be great.’And that opened up that door. So, he would call me up just out of the blue, like, ‘Hey, son. You have any matches this weekend?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, man. I worked this indie and I had it go, you know.’”
The AEW star revealed that he pitched his MVP character first to Benoit, who offered to help him with money to buy some suits to fit the character, which the AEW star politely declined. The 51-year-old then spoke about how they bonded when he joined WWE, and revealed that it was Chris Benoit who pushed for him to win the U.S. Championship:
“So, when I pitched, I told him about the MVP character before it came about. And he offered to send me $1,000 so I could buy some suits and stuff. And I said, ‘No, Chris, like as much as I—you can’t even begin to understand how much I appreciate that, but I got to do this on my own.’ And I think I earned a measure of respect from him that day. And after that, we bonded.
And when I got signed, he was almost happier for me than I was for myself. And when he came back from his neck injury, I was the one that was having the private workouts with him. He campaigned to work with me, to drop the US title to me. So, he was such a huge impact on my career. We, you know, he was my friend and my mentor. “
AEW star MVP Speaks About The Tragic Chris Benoit Incident And How Learning About CTE Helped Him
Speaking about the tragic murder-suicide incident, MVP said he was heartbroken at first, as he was really close to Chris Benoit and his family and couldn’t understand the reason behind the tragedy.
He added that learning about CTE from the research presented helped him get a different perspective. He recalled seeing signs of it when he was in the ring with Benoit, and The Crippler would blank out between matches.
The AEW star added that once he learned more and saw the same happen to an NFL player, he finally found closure, believing that it was not his friend who committed the horrific act but the CTE that led him to do it:
“And then, for the absolute tragedy that happened, like, I’ve been to that house. I played with Daniel. I used to lace his boots up, and we, you know, wrestled in the ring together. So I was absolutely heartbroken. I was crushed. And I just couldn’t understand, because like, how could you do that, man? And when we found out about CTE, and we found out that, you know, his brain was that of a 70-year-old man, and we started learning about CTE, with I think Dr. Bennet Omalu was the one that, you know, brought that to light.
It helped me because now I was able to understand. And in no way am I making it okay or trying to, but now I could understand what happened, because there were times we’d be having matches, and Chris would look at me, and I just see this blank stare, and he’d go, ‘What are we doing? What are we doing? What are we doing?’ And a few times, I thought he was just messing with me, you know, but he couldn’t remember anything, and all his matches were called, you know, we might talk about this or talk, you know, a couple of things in there, but it was just, go out there and let’s work.
So when I started learning about NFL players, like Justin Strzelczyk, Pittsburgh Steelers, he drove his car on the opposite side of the highway and killed himself. He was talking about the voices in his head telling him to kill his family. You know, some of these different NFL players that were having, like, these, you know, explosive anger issues and voices talking to them.
It gave me, as heartbroken as I was and as angry as I was at Chris, it gave me an understanding. My friend, that I knew, who took care of me, who was so good to me, the friend that I knew didn’t do that. The CTE that destroyed his brain caused him to do that.”
You can hear MVP’s comments in the video below:
MVP, along with Shelton Benjamin and Bobby Lashley, is set to face Ricochet and the Gates of Agony at AEW All Out 2025, which takes place on September 20.