A current AEW star, who broke into the wrestling business in the aughts and made a name for himself in WWE, reflects on his past.
During an interview with renowned wrestling podcaster Chris Van Vliet, MVP opened up about his felony conviction. What took him back to this time was the conversation about him being considered by WWE officials to represent the company as World Heavyweight Champion.
MVP Reflects On How His Past Influenced His WWE Career Both Positively And Negatively
On Insight with Chris Van Vliet, MVP spoke in depth about what happened in his past life. He stated that growing up in Miami gave him some “rough gang violence” exposure, and ultimately, he wound up in prison on the grounds of armed robbery. He was sentenced to 10 years, which took away his teenage and early young adult life.
This was why WWE higher-ups had some reservations when it came to putting the strap on MVP, as he may not be able to enter certain countries, like Japan, Canada, and Australia. MVP noted that the legal roadblock was also why he wasn’t “allowed” to be at AEW’s recent Forbidden Door show, but has since returned on TV.
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. […] 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? […] 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.
You can hear the entire story in the interview shared below:
Now, the positive side to this story was that it was during his time behind bars that he met a correctional officer, Primetime Daryl D, who was an indie worker. MVP embarked on his wrestling career path through this officer, who noticed him playing basketball, his athleticism, and introduced him to the sport through videotapes. The rest was history.
You can read about MVP’s truth regarding WWE exit and subsequent AEW debut, where he and Bobby Lashley reformed The Hurt Business, now known as The Hurt Syndicate.