Wrestlers’ Court: MVP & Lashley bring the Hurt, but can they help business?

In September 2024, multi-time World heavyweight wrestling champion Bobby Lashley signed with AEW. He made his first televised appearance a month later, following the debuts of former business and current syndicate associates MVP and Shelton Benjamin.

Lashley attacked Swerve Strickland to set off a main event level feud his first night in the company. The first formal chapter in this feud was written at AEW’s Full Gear pay-per-view, on November 23. Lashley defeated Strickland and his cohorts beat down Strickland’s manager, Prince Nana, after the bell. It was a commanding performance, the kind that will no doubt lead Strickland to escalate matters, resulting in the kind of bloody stipulation match that AEW often does right.

Moving to AEW when its houses are down while WWE business is up seems curious. Although, if rumors regarding Lashley’s, Benjamin’s and MVP’s contracts are true, then their motivation is self-evident. Lashley and WWE allowed his contract to expire, freeing him to accept AEW’s offer. This reflects a broader change in WWE human resources towards quieter departures. It also suggests that WWE is less afraid of AEW than it might previously have been. Lashley held the WWE Championship a little over two years ago, but he passed from WWE with barely any mention. If AEW can use him correctly, he could be a ‘get’ creatively.

That said, Bobby Lashley’s WWE runs seem defined by untapped potential.

Lashley debuted on Smackdown in 2005. He soon won the United States title. He was drafted to WWE’s version of ECW a year later, where he became the focal point of the brand and a two-time ECW champion — feuding with champions like the Big Show and Vince McMahon.

That last sentence is why ECW failed, through no fault of Lashley’s.

He carried his feud with McMahon beyond ECW and into a WrestleMania 23 main event when he beat Umaga and helped Donald Trump shave McMahon’s head. Lashley left WWE suddenly in 2008. He shifted his focus to mixed martial arts over the next eight years, returning to pro wrestling for occasional runs in Japan and with TNA.

TNA got more out of Lashley as a performer than WWE did — he won four TNA World Heavyweight championships during his later stint with the company. He debuted in 2009 and within months, then-TNA president Dixie Carter announced that her goal was to make Lashley a champion in MMA and TNA. In January 2010, Lashley turned heel for the first time, requesting his release from TNA in favor of his MMA career and kayfabe-levelling most of the roster until he got his way.

Lashley returned to TNA in March 2014. He jumped into a feud with Ethan Carter III and aligned himself with MVP for the first time. ROH veteran Kenny King completed the group. MVP made up for Lashley’s lack of charisma and helped turn Lashley from underachieving prospect to main eventer. In late June, Lashley beat Eric Young (at the time doing his best Bryan Danielson impression) to win the TNA World Heavyweight title. He held the belt until the end of October and reclaimed it in early 2015 as his faction absorbed Samoa Joe, Low Ki and Young to become the Beat Down Clan. Lashley was a fixture in a rebuilding TNA, feuding with the likes of Drew (McIntyre), Galloway, Robert Roode and EC3. He also beat Kurt Angle in Angle’s last TNA match: a far better finale than either man got in WWE.

Lashley eventually beat Galloway for his third TNA World championship, which he held for four months. He traded the belt with Eddie Edwards and defended it against the likes of Josh Barnett and Alberto El Patron. Lashley lost the title to Alberto after a seven-month title reign. Throughout Lashley’s second TNA run, he participated in angles that drew in Bellator fighters like King Mo Lawal, Stephan Bonnar and Barnett. At the time, TNA and Bellator both aired on the Spike Network. Lashley exited TNA in 2018, but not before putting over eventual champion Brian Cage.

I have written before about wrestlers who leave WWE and come back. I imagine that many performers set about honing their skills on the independent circuit, internationally or with rival promotions to show WWE what they’ve been missing. Some come back with stronger characters and renewed pushes. Examples include Sid, Cody Rhodes, and Drew McIntyre. Others return to WWE older and most valuable putting newer talent over. Rob Van Dam, John Morrison, and the Dudley Boyz come to mind. The vast majority settle back into their original positions with the company.

At first, the latter seemed to be Lashley’s WWE fate. Returning to WWE the night after WrestleMania 34, he reverted to bland babyface mode, attacking Elias with a chair and teaming with established good guys in a series of mid-card matches. Lashley may have grown as a performer but to this point WWE seemed unwilling to address his lack of mic skills. For the most part, Lashley struggled through his promos and the crowd went mild.

Lashley’s pursuit of WWE championship fixture Brock Lesnar is a through-line in his career. Lashley mirrors Lesnar and his accomplishments; so much so that when he was first called up to the main roster in 2005 some fans derisively labelled him “Black Lesnar.” Like Lesnar, Lashey was a huge, muscular athlete with a legitimate amateur wrestling pedigree. Lashley followed Lesnar into mixed martial arts as well, amassing a 15-2 record including a string of fights in Bellator. Lashley and Lesnar would have been a natural match inside the octagon, but their paths never crossed there either.

The biggest knock against Lashley (and Lesnar, for most of his pro wrestling career) is that Lashley’s voice belies his physical gifts. He is incredibly soft-spoken, which makes for a charming “aw shucks” babyface but limits his effectiveness when he needs to convey rage to hype a feud — or to play the kind of arrogant heel demanded by his physical gifts. Lesnar was immediately paired with one of the greatest talkers of all time in Paul Heyman. The two men cultivated a friendship behind the scenes with Heyman helping to write Lesnar’s autobiography. The trust between them turned into one of the most effective heel-manager pairings ever.

Lashley only got close to Lesnar in the summer of 2018, when he feuded with Roman Reigns to become the next contender for Lesnar’s Universal Championship. Reigns won that feud and went on to face Lesnar for the title at SummerSlam. This loss finally led Lashley to acquire a mouthpiece to get him over as a heel. On September 17, he introduced Lio Rush as his hype man. Evil Lashley gathered momentum, winning a pair of Intercontinental Championships and forming a loose alliance with Baron Corbin and Drew McIntyre. Rush left WWE and was replaced in September 2019 by Lana in a gross storyline that saw the kayfabe dissolution of Lana and Rusev’s marriage, a few years before it actually happened.

To this point, Lashley got more help in his second WWE run than his first, but the disparity between his physical presence and mic skills demanded a better salesman than a gadfly character like Rush, or Lana, who took the spotlight for herself. In May 2020, WWE finally got the Lashley formula right. Lashley re-aligned with MVP, who had transitioned to a manager’s role following his own return at the Royal Rumble and a brief experiment with some Australians.

By this point, WWE was mired in the COVID-19 pandemic. RAW, SmackDown and pay-per-views still aired, but emanated from closed sets — first the Performance Centre, then the Thunderdome. Lashley was one superstar who benefited from the change. Without the pressure of interacting directly with the live crowd (and with the help of sweetened crowd noise that comes with performing before a wall of screens) Lashley could focus on the physical performance at which he excels. Lashley got over further as a heel, using his full nelson submission christened the “Hurt Lock” against talent who rejected MVP’s advances. Shelton Benjamin came on board to play Kenny King’s role — a masterstroke considering Benjamin’s similar experience as a veteran wrestler who was overlooked to the point of enhancement status because of his own perceived lack of promo skills.

MVP and Lashley have acknowledged their intent in the WWE was to provide a platform for younger talent to get over. In WWE this slot went to former Cruiserweight Cedric Alexander. Alexander was portrayed as the weak link of the WWE’s Hurt Business, which was unfortunate. As the group’s youngest member he stood to gain the most from his involvement. Done well, a heel stable can be a great tool to elevate new talent, like The Rock in the Nation of Domination, Batista and Randy Orton in Evolution, or Paul Roma in the Four Horsemen.

The Hurt Business paid dividends. In August 2020, Lashley won the United States Championship and held it until the February 2021 Elimination Chamber pay-per-view. Here things got interesting: Lashley attacked Drew McIntyre late in the show, facilitating the Miz’s cashing in his ill-gotten Money in the Bank Briefcase. Miz succeeded, ending McIntyre’s run as part of a deal between the heels. Despite Miz’s attempts to save his title, Lashley defeated Miz on the March 1 episode of RAW to win his first WWE Championship.

Lashley’s momentum continued but the Hurt Business inexplicably imploded. Lashley kicked Alexander and Benjamin out of the group in a move fans (and Hurt Business members) considered sabotage. Alexander and Benjamin went back to enhancement duty; sometimes feuding, sometimes teaming until Benjamin was ultimately released from WWE in 2023. Lashley turned back McIntyre’s challenge at WrestleMania 37 and won a feud between the two pandemic-era champions. He beat fellow spear aficionado Goldberg at SummerSlam and lost his title in September, when Big E cashed in his own Money in the Bank title shot on RAW.

On January 1, 2022, Lashley finally shared a ring with Brock Lesnar after both men were added to a multi-party main event. Lesnar won that match, but Lashley got his win and title back at the Royal Rumble later that month. Lashley’s second reign came to an end a few weeks later at the Elimination Chamber when Lesnar last pinned Austin Theory. Lashley was a non-factor in the match with a kayfabe concussion.

Lashley drifted in and out of the main event scene for much of 2022-23. A convoluted program with AJ Styles and Austin Theory for the US title, aimless heel and face turns, and a few more matches with Lesnar. These bouts disappointed. They were promoted in fits and starts, and failed to take advantage of the performers’ physicality or the fact that both were now seconded by excellent talkers. Lashley lost to Lesnar at Crown Jewel in November, then defeated him by disqualification following a low blow in February 2023. Lashley was slated to take on Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania, but Bray got sick and Lashley was doomed to win the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal instead. Along the way he lost MVP as his manager, who took up with Omos — and vanished from WWE TV.

WWE’s late attempt to put Lashley at the center of another stable alongside the Street Profits showcased his limitations. That group was initially positioned as heels, but fans refused to accept the Profits as such, resulting in a lukewarm face turn and a victory over Karrion Kross’ Final Testament at WrestleMania. That match is best remembered for Bubba Ray Dudley’s involvement.

On August 16, 2024, MVP’s WWE contract expired. MVP voiced his frustration with the promotion in interviews before he left. MVP claimed that the Hurt Business was going to reform, but these plans fell apart when Vince McMahon retired and Paul “Triple H” Levesque took over creative. MVP has been particularly outspoken about feeling unwelcome in WWE, especially as creative duties shifted from McMahon to Levesque. MVP stopped short of calling Levesque racist, although he and others have noted that since Levesque took over there appear to be fewer opportunities for performers of color in main event slots. Levesque has said “I don’t see color” when it comes to booking talent.

On September 25, MVP appeared on AEW TV. He interrupted a Prince Nana interview “offering” to take over as former AEW World champion Swerve Strickland’s manager, blaming Nana for Strickland’s struggles. The next week, MVP introduced Shelton Benjamin as his “business partner.” Lashley followed suit, and here we are.

Lashley is in phenomenal shape and can still work a solid match. While I normally prefer a longer, slower journey to a main event program AEW is smart to move him into higher-profile feuds quickly. At 48 years old, he could win a title or two, but his horizon is limited. Throw in Benjamin and MVP and you have a very talented group that just happens to be almost 150 years old combined. It’s hard to see this incarnation of the Hurt Syndicate as a long-term solution to AEW’s audience woes.

The group’s future may be bright. AEW features several worthy prospects, some of whom have already been teased on Dynamite. Swerve’s refusal helped kick off a main-event feud with the debuting Lashley. MVP also passed business cards to Mercedes Moné and The Acclaimed to varying degrees of interest. Moné and the Acclaimed are interesting additions. In 2024, a dedicated tag team should be part of any heel stable, as should a contender for the women’s title. Most recently, MVP spoke with Ricochet — who was rumored for Cedric Alexander’s spot back in WWE.

If AEW wanted to give lower-profile talent a boost, it could gift a spot in the Syndicate to Dante and Darius Martin, who are currently wasted in an airline pilot-adjacent gimmick. They could incorporate Lashley’s former hype man, Lio Rush into the storyline (Rush has already been drawn in, at least momentarily; he was decimated by Shelton Benjamin on Dynamite in the run up to his own match against Swerve).

Building on Lashley’s legitimate military background, the Hurt Syndicate could recruit AR Fox, whose earlier push alongside Strickland was derailed, along with Captain Shawn Dean, Charlie Bravo and Trish Adora — the Infantry. Or why not go for Anthony Ogogo? Lashley’s MMA exploits are part of his character, as are Benjamin’s bona fides and MVP’s Brazilian Jiu Jitsu experience. Add a trained Olympic boxer and you have a fight club that trumps the Death Riders’ tough guy claims.

I like the idea of recruiting new, AEW-exclusive talent to the Hurt Syndicate rather than former WWE wrestlers. AEW owner Tony Khan recently commented that his promotion had become the home for the top Black wrestlers in the world. The Hurt Syndicate would offer some of them a better chance to show what they can do.

RELATED LINKS

• Bobby Lashley story archive
• Previous Wrestlers’ Court columns by Jonathan Schwartz