Former WWE Superstar, MVP recently spoke with Robbie E’s Why It Ended podcast and discussed creating his gimmick in WWE and more. Below are some highlights with a H/T to WrestlingInc.com for the transcriptions.
First meeting John Laurinaitis:
“I used to get booked as an extra for the WWE when they were coming to town”, said MVP. “And I remember roping Johnny Ace off one day and I’m like , ‘Hey Johnny, you got a minute? You got a minute?’ He said, ‘I’m busy kid.’ I said, ‘Johnny please, just one minute… just thirty seconds.’ ‘Busy kid.’ ‘Johnny give me 10 seconds.’ And he stops and goes, ‘Alright kid. What?’ ‘Just tell me what the f**k I got to do to get hired.’ I said it just like that. Johnny told me. He paused for a minute and looked at me like, ‘Do you know who the f**k I am, talking to me like that?’ The other part was he was kind of like, ‘This kid’s got some f**king balls alright.’ So he said, ‘Look, we like you. We just don’t have anything for you’.
Creating his WWE gimmick:
“Working down on South Beach, I came up with this idea. Hey man, very week you turn on SportsCenter, there’s some pro athlete saying or doing some stupid s**t or getting into a scuffle or getting suspended. Working down on South Beach I used to see these athletes show up and I’d see guys like Shaq, Dr. J, Jim Brown, Barry Sanders. Here are guys who are first ballot Hall of Famers, like legends. They’d be so cool and so humble and they’d stop to speak to you. They just conducted themselves differently. But then you see guys who are first round draft busts, guys second-third round in the draft or whatever. They’d show up with an entourage of fifteen people. We’ve got a dress code, but they’d show up with their shorts and sneakers just demanding s**t and go, ‘Hey man, do you know who I am? You better let me in.’ ‘Man, f**k you man. You haven’t scored a touchdown since you got drafted. F**k off.’ But, it triggered a light bulb and I realized, ‘Wait! That hasn’t been done in wrestling yet!’
Why Kenny Omega didn’t work in WWE:
“Regarding Omega, I think definitely with the way the developmental system was at the time – the way Bill was running it and sadly Vince McMahon’s mentality at that time – I don’t think Kenny would have thrived in the WWE arena because I remember specifically hearing when Vince was like, ‘If he’s under six feet tall and 200 pounds I don’t want to see him.’ There was that time when no little guys were getting signed because Vince wanted big guys. And six feet 200 pounds was the cut off.”
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