During a recent exclusive interview with Adventure Gamers, MVP revealed he signed a new long-term deal with AEW. In addition, MVP also talked on John Cena, Tony, Khan, if he ever experienced racism in WWE and Triple H.
His new deal with AEW and thanking Tony Khan:
“I want to say thank you to Tony Khan, because recently I signed an extension and I’ll be with AEW for quite a while in my current capacity and hopefully beyond in a managerial capacity and to whatever extent, possibly behind the scenes. I’m very happy where I’m at right now in my career at this stage to be able to continue to contribute to the business and make money with my friends and entertain at the level that we’re still able to maintain. I appreciate Tony Khan for giving me, Bobby and Shelton an opportunity to get the team back together for a final run and the future looks bright.”
His thoughts on John Cena:
“I have immense respect for Cena because his work ethic is second to none. When you say getting to know the man. Honestly, I never knew Cena out of work, out of the work environment. So I feel like I never got to know the private John Cena. He’s always on, he’s always doing something. And this is praise, I’ve never met somebody who is so fully dedicated to the company to work. We could be up all night before drinking with the boys. And we used to knock out cases of beer and I’m not exaggerating, bottles of whiskey. And man, he’d be up at 6:00 AM to do that media. You wouldn’t think that he had been going hard the night before. His work ethic man, that the guy was always working nonstop. So my opinion of him professionally is that he is definitely in the pantheon of all time greats. I feel like he was the Hulk Hogan of this generation, if not greater. He holds a Guinness Book of World Record for Make a Wish with wishes granted for sick children. I mean, he always seemed like a cool guy. He always treated me great, he was always cool with me and he was a leader, a good dude. So he kept his inner circle very small, cool with everybody. But people that he would call friends or family, I think he was very wise about how he conducted his business.”
How Tony Khan is different from WWE:
“It’s very different because Tony Khan is a completely different human being, with a completely different personality. He’s just a nice guy and a good person. I’ve never had any kind of a relationship with Triple H. Vince I was able to work with and with Vince, Vince knows exactly what he wants, how he wants to do it, and if you can present something that is better, sometimes Vince will listen, but when Vince has a vision, that’s it. You go with it. There’s no second guessing it. Tony Khan is a lot more interactive and will take in a lot more ideas and he’s more willing to be pliable when it comes to his vision and how he wants to present it and what he’s willing to do to add to it or to change it. He’s just a nice guy. It’s funny, like his energy level. He’s always happy and I’ve never seen him be mean to somebody. It’s a much different environment where WWE was very corporate, very tight laced, for some people even uncomfortable and they’re made to feel like they’re walking on eggshells and people are scared of getting fired. That environment doesn’t exist in AEW. It’s way more relaxed. No one’s walking on eggshells. The boss has time for everybody. And it’s super fun. No stress.”
If he experienced racism during his time in WWE
“Not blatantly, not overtly blatantly. I have been around people that told off-color jokes that are probably inappropriate in the workplace. But I didn’t take it personally. I love a little off-color humor at times, but there are people that if you ask around ew-WWE circles that everybody kind of agrees that this person has dropped some n-bombs. I say that in terms of yeah, I believe this person has dropped some n-bombs at some point, but I personally have never had anyone say something overtly racist to me so I can’t make that claim, but I do suspect that there are some people who are no strangers to saying those things.”
On if racism was more common in the early 2000s that what people think
“Before my time perhaps, because I’ve heard Teddy Long tell some stories about some people that were overtly racist to him without care. Different OG names and guys like D-Von said he’s experienced things like that. Actually I made a joke and I made it uncomfortable when we were talking about me being in the Inferno Match. We had a private meeting and with Vince and there were a few other of the producers and technical people around, and when they told me what they wanted to do, I made the off-color joke of ‘I sense this isn’t some of your first time setting a black man on fire’ and that went over very uncomfortably. I was trying to make a joke, so I was making an off-color joke. But it was funny to me at the time, but I personally didn’t experience it blatantly to my face. But I’ve heard things said about other people that experienced things. Mark Henry had an episode, D-Von says he’s had an episode. I think Shelton said he had an episode. But sometimes it comes disguised as humour. Sometimes that is how people really feel but they try and laugh it off. But that’s not just WWE, that’s just certain people that have a certain mentality. So in conclusion, I never personally dealt with anything overtly to my face.”
On Bret Hart calling Triple H a phony:
“Man. I agree with Bret’s assertion. I’ve said before, I call him a coward and a liar. Let’s put it like this. If you really want to, you can go to YouTube and you can look up the interviews of various wrestlers through the years of what their opinion is of the man. Interviews of guys that were his friends, what they had to say about the guy. I can think of more guys that dislike him than I can think of guys that do like him. And people say MVP’s salty or bitter. Like, no, I have personal issues with the dude, stemming from professional stuff, but just the things that he does, how he carries himself, I just don’t have respect for the guy. The newer generation, they don’t know that guy yet. So the one of those that came up underneath him in NXT, they think he’s brilliant and a lot of them should for the hand he’s had in their career. But the guys that had to work with him back in the day will tell you a different story almost overwhelmingly. And so it’s not just me saying it. There’s guys who are way up the totem pole than me that are telling you that this guy’s, no bueno.”
MVP also talks on working with MJF, The Hurt Syndicate, working with Rey Mysterio, Ricochet and more!
All quotes are courtesy of Adventure Gamers.