It has been a little over a year since MVP announced he would be leaving WWE. A good amount of soul searching and discontent with his position in the organization led to his final decision.
“I guess more than anything it was that my contract was coming to a close,” he tells the Miami Herald. “I had a year left on my contract. John Laurinaitis was coming to me to re-sign like he had a number of times. I had actually been avoiding him because I hadn’t made my decision yet. I was still trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I hadn’t come to terms with my decision. “On a professional level it was a culmination of a lot of things. I just wasn’t happy anymore and felt I wasn’t being given the opportunities that I had been given previously. It was time for me to make a decision, and I didn’t want to re-sign. I asked if I could be out of that final year so I could go and pursue my original dream of wrestling in Japan.”
WWE’s Executive Vice President of Talent Relations respected his decision. MVP feels he receives unnecessary flack.
“I have to say John Laurinaitis gets a bad rap from a lot of people,” MVP said. “He is in a really crappy position. His job makes you very unpopular. He and I had a good relationship. He was the guy that hired me and gave me my first opportunity. John Laurinaitis, a.k.a. Johnny Ace, spent 10 years in Japan with the All Japan [Pro Wrestling] promotion. He and I would talk about Japanese wrestling all the time over beers.”
MVP also discusses his passion for Japanese wrestling and life after WWE. The full article is available here.
