Major AEW Star Opens Up About Leaving WWE

An AEW star has shed light into his departure from WWE in 2024.

MVP, or Montel Vontavious Porter, has had multiple stints with the Stamford promotion, where he became a two-time United States Champion and a one-time Tag Team Champion.

MVP returned to WWE during the 2020 Royal Rumble, becoming a regular from the next night on RAW.

In May, he aligned himself with Bobby Lashley, after which Shelton Benjamin joined into what came to be known as The Hurt Business.

The stable feuded with various wrestlers and factions, including Apollo Crews, The New Day, and RK-Bro till 2024.

MVP’s contract ended in August of that year, following which his profile was moved to WWE’s alumni page, ending his second run with the company.

Following his release, he accused the new regime under Triple H of mishandling the faction. He joined AEW in 2024 and aligned with Benjamin and Lashley to form The Hurt Syndicate.

AEW Star MVP Discusses Leaving WWE

Porter recently appeared on the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast, wherein he spoke about a variety of topics, including his departure from WWE.

Everybody knows that The Hurt Business got shut down in WWE for reasons that have never been made clear to me. No one has ever said, and I begged Vince, Bobby begged Vince, but please don’t do this. Vince had his ideas of what he wanted to do, and everybody genuinely agrees that we got shut down way too soon.

So when it came time for our contracts, I made it very clear that I don’t want to be there anymore. There are people there in management that I dislike immensely, a person, and I wouldn’t even bother to get into that. But I just knew that with certain people in charge, and that’s how the wrestling game is, that’s how life is.

I don’t care where you work. When management changes, some people are out, other people are in, and I knew it was time to go. I wasn’t gonna re-sign. I was in Bobby’s ear constantly like don’t re-sign. Shelton got released. Don’t re-sign. Let’s you me and Sheldon get back together. Let’s go to AEW.

I know we can go to AEW and we can pick this thing back up. I’m grateful to Tony Khan for seeing the value in us and giving us an opportunity to come over there and continue to tell our story and help some of these younger talents. Because contrary to what the internet tells you, there are a lot of young guys that come up and ask us for advice and ask us to watch their matches and ask us for insight, and I love being able to pay it forward because people gave it to me.

So thank you to Tony Khan for seeing something in us and believing in us and giving us an opportunity to end The Hurt Syndicate in AEW, and for us to finish telling our story.

MVP also discussed how his past criminal record acted as a barrier to him achieving his goals in WWE.