Members Of AEW's Hurt Syndicate Faction Explain Members' Real-Life Bonds

Ever since they first came together as The Hurt Business in WWE years ago, it was clear to see that Bobby Lashley, MVP, and Shelton Benjamin were more than just three guys being put together. That's only been reinforced as the years have gone on, and was so again this fall, when the three reunited in AEW, this time under the name The Hurt Syndicate. Sitting down with Renee Paquette for an episode of "Close Up," the trio talked about the origins of their real-life friendship.

"We were in the Staples Center, and there was a ball of tape and a trash can in the corner," MVP said. "And I'm sitting there new. I didn't really...I knew them...but I didn't know them yet. And they were betting $20 who could make the ball of the tape in the trash...I was just watching. I was new, I'm kind of digging the scene from afar. And Bobby didn't want to pay. I remember that."

"You don't have to pay if you win," Lashley chimed in.

"I seem to remember it a little differently," MVP said with a laugh. "But that was the first time that I remember being with them at the same time and us kind of laughing and joking. And then through the years, Bobby and I would drive together for a little bit, and we got to be familiar."

It's that longevity together that, Benjamin feels, has made the trio into something more than just a friendship, or three wrestlers grouped together.

"We're actually brothers," Benjamin said. "Like, we've got...this is almost two decades of friendship, and...at one point, we each were competitors against each other. So I think, over the years, we've just formed a strong bond to now, it's more of a brotherhood that a friendship."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Close Up with Renee Paquette" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription