MVP Explains How Real-Life Encounters Inspired His Iconic WWE Character

AEW star and pro wrestling veteran MVP discussed his frustrations before being hired by WWE on a recent episode of his Marking Out podcast.

MVP said, โ€œWhen I got hired by WWE, I invented MVP. As a matter of fact, I had a number of tryouts and got booked as an extra a number of times. One day, my frustration got to a point where I was like, โ€˜To hell with this.โ€™ I went to the Vice President of Talent Relations, who was John Laurinaitis at that time. I went, โ€˜Johnny, you got a minute?โ€™ โ€˜What is it, kid?โ€™ โ€˜Can I get 30 seconds?โ€™ โ€˜Okay, you got 30 seconds.โ€™ I said, โ€˜Tell me what the f*** I gotta do to get hired. You tell me what you want. You tell me what you want for me and Iโ€™ll give it to you.’โ€

On how John Laurinaitis was initially taken aback by his comments:

โ€œInitially, he was taken aback like, โ€˜Who are you talking to?โ€™ But he saw it was coming from a passionate place. He said, โ€˜Kid, we like characters. Give us a character that you can do that we donโ€™t already have, and get back to me,โ€™ and he walked off. I remember feeling like, โ€˜That wasnโ€™t the answer I was looking for. Tell me specifically,โ€™ but he gave me the answer.โ€

On working as a bodyguard at the time:

โ€œAt the time, I was working at South Beach, doing bodyguard work. I used to see these professional athletes show up to the club, and I would see Hall of Fame legends like Shaq [Shaquille Oโ€™Neal], Dr. J [Julius Erving], and Barry Sanders. I would see these sports Gods show up and they were so humble and cool. Then, I would see these third-round draft picks show up with an entourage of people, โ€˜Do you know who I am?โ€™ Sometimes, it was kind of embarrassing. There was no shortage of footage of athletes being extravagant and boisterous. Ron Artest going into the stands, Allen Iverson with โ€˜Practice?โ€™ That had never been done in pro wrestling.โ€

On using those experiences to create his MVP character:

โ€œIt was a relatively new phenomenon, and I took my experiences from South Beach and ESPN, and I crafted this character called MVP. I wrote up a treatment, chapters explaining who the character was and photos of me in a suit and how the character dressed. This came because, fortunately for me, Ricky Santana was a very good friend of mine, he worked at WCW, and he and John Laurinaitis were very good friends. I told Ricky, โ€˜I have this idea but Iโ€™m scared theyโ€™ll steal it from me.โ€™ I pitched him the idea and he said, โ€˜That smells like money to me.โ€™ He called Johnny, Johnny gave him his word, โ€˜We wonโ€™t put the kid off.โ€™ Spoke to Johnny and he said, โ€˜Sounds great. Give me 20 storyline ideas.โ€™ I literally wrote 20 vignettes and storylines. Within a week or two, I had this ready for him and they loved it.โ€

MVP was signed by WWE in 2005 and made his debut on WWE TV in August 2006.

You can check out the complete podcast below.

(H/T to Fightful for transcribing the above quotes)