Paul Heyman explains why he brought MVP back to WWE – Wrestling Planet

“I am very proud of him as a human being because you are talking about someone who did not let himself be dragged down by his own past. He came out of a situation and said, ‘Okay, how do I change my life?’ How do I live my dreams even though I have this stain on me that I will never shake? How can I get over this?’”

“MVP called me when I was CEO of RAW and said, ‘The Rumble is in Houston. You know I have a son. My son never saw me as MVP. Can you get me into the Rumble?’” Heyman revealed.

“I know how talented he is. I think life hit him so hard and he was trying to stay positive and inspiring his son, but I think he forgot the greatness that he had to offer. I said, ‘I’ll make you a deal. I’ll put you in the Rumble if you work RAW next night. Who do you like? Who do you want to work with? He said: ‘Mysterio’. I told him: ‘He’s fine, he works with Rey Mysterio. I’ll make that match happen, but I want a match, not just an appearance at the Rumble.’”

“Meanwhile, behind the scenes unbeknownst to him, I went to all the appropriate parties and per protocol, and that includes Vince because that is autonomy, that is the last word, and I introduced him to be a producer who brings his team with him. The way. So if for any reason, if someone misses a plane, a flight gets canceled or someone gets sick or injured and we need a replacement, ‘Hey, we’ve got this legacy star, former US heavyweight champion, MVP. Dancing, and he can act. We can connect it to a match. He is there, he is a producer and people are learning from his experience. “Great, let’s do it,” Heyman said in his best Vince impression.

Heyman continued to tell the story, saying, “So while doing the Bobby Lashley-Lana-Rusev triangle, I was like, ‘You know what? Lashley should finally finish MVP. That would be great.’ By the time he showed up at the Rumble, he had pitched him and booked him for four jobs. He was wrestling, he was directing, he was commentating and he was a producer. My theory was that he might not last in three of them, but there’s no way they’re going to get rid of him in all four.”

“I had no idea which one was going to end up staying. If you had told me that he was going to end up as a commentator, great, as a producer, great, as a fighter, great, as a spokesperson for Bobby Lashley, great. I knew I’d end up with at least one, if not more, but at least one, and I knew I could focus on that one and excel at it.”

“I also knew that Brock’s time was running out, that he was going to go home for a while and that the lead spokesman position was going to open up, so I brought him in to replace me,” Heyman said.

“I brought him in as my successor. I brought him in to play that role because there were some people who were helping someone get a promotion, but they weren’t playing the role of the old-school manager, the new-school advocate. They weren’t tied to a person that you couldn’t imagine those two being apart. I knew that Lashley and MVP had so much synergy and chemistry that when you put them together, you couldn’t imagine Bobby Lashley without MVP or MVP without Bobby Lashley. I knew the dynamic would be, forget about it being gold, it would be platinum. It would be such a box office that they would just merge and become an act as one.”

“That’s the true successor to the evolution of where managers have gone, that you’re with an act, and you’re so identified with that act, that you complete it and it’s not the same without you. Since he knew Brock would be taking time off, MVP was the heir apparent to fill that role in the leadership position in this industry.”