The Hurt Business once looked destined to rank among WWE's best heel factions. Led by Bobby Lashley, MVP served as their manager, and Shelton Benjamin and Cedric Alexander started providing backup in 2020.
They were pushed seriously for a time, with Lashley holding the United States Championship and Alexander and Benjamin becoming RAW Tag Team Champions. However, shortly after the All Mighty was crowned WWE Champion, he booted the tag team from the group and remained with MVP until his manager turned on him and was paired with Omos.
There's no denying that WWE dropped the ball on The Hurt Business and attempts to revisit the concept (to some extent) by pairing Lashley with The Street Profits and B-Fab fell flat. That version of the group didn't connect with fans and, after being released by WWE, Lashley, MVP, and Benjamin are now signed with AEW.
During a recent interview, MVP talked more about his issues with Triple H, making it clear he blames the WWE CCO for derailing Lashley's run as a main eventer.
"Bobby Lashley was a two-time WWE Champion, and after Triple H took over, Bobby Lashley was reduced to the mid-card," he stated. "And I'll be honest with you, my issues with him have nothing to do with race. My issues have to do with him as a person and our personal interactions and things that he said and did that caused me to have zero respect for him."
MVP went on to explain what makes The Hurt Business worthy of the main event. "We're the OG vets. We're not just vets, we're OG vets. I don't have any qualms about telling you that I'm 51 years old, that Shelton's 49 and Bobby's 48, but we're still in better shape than a lot of guys half our age, and we can still go, but we know the clock's running down."
"This is the last ride. We know that we're done after this," he continued. "We're not gonna be the old guys hanging around for no reason. And our goal is on the way out to establish and make new stars."
Alexander was released by WWE in February, and MVP now hopes that the full faction will be able to reunite in AEW. "The only thing I can say about Cedric is that I absolutely love Cedric. He's a little brother," the former IWGP Intercontinental Champion teased. "He was a part of the founding group. I know that his contract is up, but I don't know what his status is."
"And unfortunately, I can't speak for him or his career choices. I don't do the hiring. So I can't say anything about that other than he's an awesome human being. A tremendously talented young man. I'd love to have him back," MVP added.
The Hurt Business' AEW run has received largely positive reviews from fans, and they're faring better than they did during that final stint in WWE. Whether MVP is right to blame Triple H is hard to say, though it's clear that they had very different ideas in terms of how best to handle creative.
While an argument could be made that Vince McMahon failed The Hurt Business before Triple H took over creative, there's no denying that The Game never really did anything with Lashley when The All Mighty was still signed with WWE.