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Former WWE superstar MVP opens up ahead of new one-man show: "A real-life Oceans 11 put me in prison"

Posted: Sep 10th 2018 By: Matty Paddock

Former United States Champion MVP has opened up on an all-new stage show he’s bringing to London to tell the story of his remarkable life.

The 44-year-old featured extensively for WWE between 2005 and 2009 and was one of the most memorable performers of that era, also clinching tag team gold in addition to his runs with the US title.

But the success and notoriety he enjoyed as a global superstar were a startling contrast to his formative years, spent behind bars for his role in a major armed robbery.

It’s an explosive past that Mirror Sport can exclusively reveal he’s bringing to life in London this November as part of the one-man show, MVP: Most Valuable Prisoner.

Mirror Sport sat down with the Miami native, who also starred for New Japan and TNA, and still performs on the independent scene on both sides of the pond.

The revealing chat shed light not only on the show and its contents, but also any regrets – or lack of – he has about his time with WWE and those he enjoys watching now.

Yours is quite the story. Why have you decided to start telling it in this way now?

I am at a point in my career where I am ready to transition. I always said that I was going to retire at 45, and I’ll be 45 in October. I decided that I still look and feel pretty good, so I’m going to hang around for a couple more years, but I know that my actual in-ring career is coming to a close. I am ready to move into the next phase of my career, which would be motivational speaking. I know that my life story is an inspirational one and one that can, hopefully, help others achieve goals in their own lives.


There’s the public face of the MVP people that fans know. In terms of you as a person, how much more would you say there is for people to know, as it sounds like you have stories to tell…

Oh, man. I have layers and layers. The basic concept is ‘Heists, Headlocks and Hope,’ and I’ll be talking about my life growing up in Miami in the 1980s and what I went through. People know MVP but not many people know the man that became MVP and what I had to go through and overcome to get there. I’ll be talking about growing up on the streets as a gang member. A lot people have only experienced the things I’ve experienced from a movie screen, but I have actually done things that are documented – you can look up the crime reports and the newspapers, it’s all there. The heist that sent me to prison is comparable to something like Oceans Eleven. I was a teenager and it was a major heist of a cruise ship and I pulled it off. From age 16 to 26, I literally became a man in prison so it was influential in shaping me. There was a prison guard that introduced me to pro wrestling and I needed a hobby, so I devoted myself to it – I lived it, ate it and slept it and that’s how I became MVP. So people might think MVP was an overnight success, but I had to travel a long way to get there.

Considering what fans knew of the MVP character, was it a conscious decision that much of your real-life experience was hidden from what was seen on screen?

Well I never kept it hidden and would often discuss my past in interviews. I’d gone to detention centres to talk to at-risk youth groups and been to prisons in Texas to give speeches to the inmates there, so I never kept it a secret. But it’s only now that I am in a position to present my story in this kind of format, a kind of a one-man show.

The early days of the MVP character seem now to be such a contrast to the man you’d been before breaking into wrestling. What was that like, to be playing almost a mirror image of that?

Well, to be honest, MVP really was actually me, the real-life person – but with the volume just cranked all the way up to the top. When I was nine years old, I knew what a Rolex Presidential was and how much it cost. The rest of the country was in a recession but Miami was booming – the drug trade literally fuelled the Miami economy. I used to see Mercedes and the drug dealers and I would read the newspapers. In the neighbourhood we’d see the lifestyles of the dealers and their flashy cars. I wanted that lifestyle and, in my neighbourhood, you had to be a slick talker or you couldn’t come out of the house! All of those factors came together to create MVP. That character wasn’t so far from the actual kid who grew up in Miami.

You must look back on your body of work in WWE with a lot of pride?

Sure, absolutely. I think about that young kid who grew up in Florida with a single mom and in poverty, essentially. I made some bad decisions and was able to overcome that because Vince McMahon gave me an opportunity. Society said ‘you’re an ex-convict, we’ll give you a minimum wage job,’ but Vince said ‘hey, you’re talented, let’s give you an opportunity.’ I was able to travel the world as one of WWE’s top talents. I was able to take people that I watched on television with awe and make them my peers and my colleagues, and I was a two-time United States champion and a tag team champion. So I look back and go ‘wow – I’m in the history books!’

Some fans felt, with how you were in the ring and how you could talk, it was a shame you weren’t given that main event level feud. Is there any regret for you that you didn’t have that opportunity, or are you happy with what you achieved?

Well, I wouldn’t say regret because it was never something I could control. So you can’t ever really have regrets over things you literally have no control of. Should I have been a WWE Champion? A lot of people seem to think so and I certainly do because anytime you lace up your boots, you do it to be the absolute best. But there are some legends like Mr Perfect and Scott Hall – guys who were definitely top-tier with amazing careers that never really had the chance to hold the top belt. But that’s fine, because at the end of the day, like I said, I look at my body of work and I’m in the history books and was one of the longest-reigning United States champions in history. I’ve been a champion at every promotion I’ve been at, so I would have liked a chance to show that I could have been a top champion, but I don’t think it takes away from my overall history.

It was great to hear you say you’re still feeling great physically. Fans will still be able to catch you in the ring, then?

Yeah, and I love where I am at in my career. Doing independent shows allows me to share a little more intimacy with the fans. The smaller venues and the meet and greets are a bit more up close and personal whereas, with the WWE shows, you are literally so far away, so you don’t have that opportunity to interact.

When you look back at when you first started your wrestling career and the age you were, is there anyone perhaps at the start of their career that catches your eye, perhaps in WWE or NXT?

You know what, to be honest I don’t really watch WWE very much. When I do watch wrestling for my own pleasure, I tend to watch New Japan Pro Wrestling and I watch a lot of old wrestling, the old NWA stuff. But I do see a lot of young guys that I crossed paths with on the independent circuit who are doing very well for themselves. It’s the information age and you can make a living as a professional wrestler, and you can perform on the likes of YouTube and social media without having to have worked for WWE or one big company.

You used the word inspirational earlier. Do you hope that, coming to see your show, will be one or two individuals who’re in the position you were in growing up that can take something from the lessons you learned and the choices you made?

Well, I really hope so – and that’s what motivates me. That’s why I’ve spoken at some of the prisons I’ve been at and I have had the pleasure of people reaching out to me on social media and explain that they’re in a rough spot and that, in finding out about my life, that story was inspirational. So I use that word. I do believe that anyone who comes to see the show will be absolutely in awe and I’m not afraid at all to say that. They say truth in stranger than fiction! I spent nine years in prison for armed robbery, and people often say ‘Ah, you just made a mistake!’ But I did not make a mistake – I didn’t accidentally commit a robbery! I made a conscious decision to commit a crime, knowing what the consequences were and I had to face up to them. After my time in prison I asked myself what I was going to next, and professional wrestling was my avenue away from that. If it wasn’t for professional wrestling I’d probably be dead or in back prison.

It sounds quite clear that the live show you’re doing is a real passion for you…

That’s what it is – it’s a passion play for me. I am really focused on it and that’s what I am working towards. And I really love London. England is one of my favourite places in the world and London is one of my favourite cities – in fact, my son is named Camden! I have had a lot of wonderful nights in Camden Town, so this was the only place I wanted to do the test run of the show. I am really excited.