When MVP was introduced onto WWE television, Teddy Long was supposed to be his ‘agent’.
15 years after making his first appearance on WWE television, MVP is with WWE present day and is currently the on-screen manager for Omos along with being an active in-ring performer.
When MVP was brought into the fold of WWE TV in 2006, he was labeled a ‘free agent’ and would often state that his unseen agent was taking care of his contract negotiations. Former WWE writer Andrew Goldstein was a guest on The Universal Wrestling Podcast and shared that the plan was for Teddy Long to be MVP’s agent. It was supposed to be a heel turn for Teddy, but it did not pan out because Teddy could not take bumps.
The original end to the story [MVP’s introduction to WWE TV] was that Teddy Long was going to be his agent and that it was going to be like a Teddy Long heel turn as like, you know, he was playing both sides of the coin. ‘I’m the GM of SmackDown but I’m also representing this high-priced free agent and now I’m leaving my post as GM and I’m just going with MVP’ but then, you know, Teddy couldn’t take bumps and there was just no upside to having Teddy as a working manager. We never really paid off the whole story of who MVP’s agent was and that whole thing.
Goldstein felt that during his time in WWE, he may have overstepped in some areas. He dove into that and explained that from the start, he would join in on the joking and doing impressions of wrestlers and co-workers.
He mentioned that one would have to earn the right to do that and there would be producers such as a Michael Hayes who would take offense to Goldstein making light of a business he’s been in for the majority of his life.
You know, to be self-critical, I think — again, I came from a comedy background and I wanted to sort of bring that — I wore that as a badge of honor in that job [WWE creative] and I wanted to bring that to the work that I was doing and so, because I came from sort of a comedy background like — there was a lot of comedy and joking around in our personal writers meetings and then in the TV production meetings. I mean, it was a sight to see to watch Brian Gewirtz sitting at the head of the table with Vince [McMahon] and Kevin Dunn and Michael Hayes going over the show and doing impressions of everybody in the room and cracking jokes that popped Vince and so, I would see that and be like, oh, I can do that… so I probably took some liberties that somebody like Brian who had earned the respect to do that. I probably took some liberties of like, in confidence with some wrestlers who I thought I was cool — like 100 percent cool with. Like do an impression of a wrestler but then it’s like that word gets out and it’s like, ‘Who? What? That new guy?’ You know? I just didn’t have the gravitas to — so I kind of misjudged that kind of thing and then also, guys like Michael Hayes, I didn’t realize the extent to which that was their life, right? Michael Hayes, since he’s a teenager has been in the wrestling business and he’s never known any other life and so, to sh*t on something wrestling related in his presence, where everybody might laugh, Michael Hayes is like, yo, that’s my life. He would take it personally and so it’s things like that. It’s almost like working in a newsroom. You have to earn your freedom to be a sarcastic f*ck, you know? You can’t just come in hot, making jokes and doing impressions of people.
MVP was in action on the 6/13 Monday Night Raw and scored a win over Cedric Alexander. To get a recap of that show, check out the latest Rewind-A-Raw episode.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit The Universal Wrestling Podcast with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
