The Hurt Business once stood a very real chance of becoming WWE's top heel faction. Led by Bobby Lashley, MVP served as his manager before Shelton Benjamin and Cedric Alexander joined them in 2020.
They were pushed seriously, with Lashley holding the United States Championship and Alexander and Benjamin becoming RAW Tag Team Champions. However, shortly after the All Mighty became WWE Champion, he booted the tag team from the group and remained with MVP until the manager was paired with Omos.
WWE did drop the ball on The Hurt Business and tried revisiting the concept (to some extent) by pairing Lashley with The Street Profits and B-Fab. The group didn't really connect with fans and Lashley, MVP, and Benjamin are all no longer in WWE.
During a recent virtual signing, Lashley reflected on what he felt was WWE's poor treatment of the group.
"I think it was kind of a spit in the face towards the end," the former WWE Champion told fans. "We never was in front of a live crowd. During the pandemic, a lot of guys kind of sat back home and, 'I don’t wanna do it. I’m not gonna do that,' and it was us that were saying, 'It’s work, so we’re going' and we did everything."
"We were on half the show most of the time and we were doing everything that a lot of people wouldn’t do. Then we came out of the pandemic, then all of these people started resurfacing. 'Oh, I’m ready to work, I’m ready to work.' But what about the guys that were putting the time in in this 'dangerous time' that we were having?"
Lashley continued, "We got kind of overlooked and I think that was kind of a little bit of a spit in the face."
"I think we could have come back and we could have done some big things together. They just didn’t want us. I think different strokes for different folks, different people like different things. I think when the regime changed, the regime wasn’t too high on me at all and was definitely not high on them because they were the first people they got rid of."
That's a reference to the fact Triple H clearly didn't view Lashley as a top star in the same way Vince McMahon did. Now, Benjamin and MVP are in AEW and the All Mighty is expected to join them imminently.
"I have a few wrestling offers on the table. I have a few boxing matches, MMA matches, a lot of stuff on the table," he teased. "I see Lio over at AEW with MVP and Shelton. That’s also a good opportunity..."
Stay tuned for updates as we have them.