Members Of AEW's Hurt Syndicate Detail Faction's Formation
The Hurt Syndicate has wasted no time making their mark and impression in AEW in their short time in the promotion. The faction had a successful run in WWE along with Cedric Alexander as The Hurt Business where the group notably held the WWE United States Championship, Raw Tag Team Championship, and WWE Championship through their existence. MVP, Shelton Benjamin, and Bobby Lashley joined "AEW Close Up" where MVP spoke about why the group decided to re-form in AEW.
"Quite frankly because we had an idea that initially was conceived by Bobby and we were able to put it together and we executed it flawlessly and it was very organically popular and unfortunately it was ended long before anybody was ready for it to end," MVP said referring to the group's time in WWE. "We felt that we wanted to give our story the proper ending that it deserved, and Tony Khan was kind enough to allow us to bring our conglomerate here and continue doing what we do better than virtually anybody else."
Show host Renee Paquette asked Lashley a follow-up question from MVP's answer, asking the eight-time world champion what the idea was that he conceived. Lashley started to reveal that MVP returned to in-ring action in early 2020 with WWE because his children had never seen him wrestle, and while talking with Benjamin backstage, Lashley said he felt a character change was needed and with influence from Suge Knight, Don King, and The Rock, a transition for all three men began to snowball.
"We were talking backstage and then we said, 'Alright, 'P's there, we got us two,' I said, 'That's already a group,'" Lashley commented. "The fans wanted us back. Even to this day, before coming back, anytime I posted something at least one comment would say 'Hurt Business,' 'Hurt Business,' 'Hurt Business.” They always wanted to see us get back together because it was something that was real... And we said, 'Man, we gotta do it again,' and this was the perfect opportunity to do it again."
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "AEW Close Up" with a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.