Criminal Record Allegedly Stopped AEW Star From Winning WWE World Title

A current AEW star is speaking about the career repercussions of their felony conviction.

Montel Vontavious Porter, aka MVP, debuted for the World Wrestling Entertainment in 2006, often being referred to as a free agent.

One of his earlier feuds in the promotion was with Kane, and later, The Brothers of Destruction when he teamed up with Mr. Kennedy.

His first reign as a champion was holding the United States Championship, which carried on for 343 days, before losing to Matt Hardy at the 2008 Backlash.

After subsequently developing a losing streak, he regained the US title on the 500th episode of SmackDown on March 20, 2009.

In between, MVP also contested for the WWE Championship once, but lost.

The AEW star recently appeared on the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast, wherein he explained why he might have not won a major championship with WWE.

“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.

AEW Star MVP Details The Impact Of His Felony Conviction

AEW’s MVP explained that wrestling champions are expected to be on overseas tours and many countries have stringent rules about allowing felons entry.

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? Like going to Japan. Japan is very strict about people who [can enter], like James Brown, they wouldn’t let into Japan. But because I went over for a Japanese company, they were able to smooth it over with the visa process.

Canada. I couldn’t get into Canada for a long time. I had to go through a process there where people had to write letters of recommendation. It costs 1000s of dollars in legal fees to get something in Canada. They call it a letter of rehabilitation. They said, Okay, you’re rehabilitated. You can come to Canada. You always have to bring this letter with you.

Australia, the last time I went to Australia was with Tommy Dreamer’s House of Hardcore. It literally took an act of Congress, and at the 12th hour, some Parliament official, nobody wanted to sign off on my document to let me in. And somebody knew somebody, and some member of parliament or whatever, signed off on it, and I was able to get in Australia.

Recently, MVP addressed his WWE exit and finding a home in AEW. Read more on that here.