MVP Details Why He Left WWE For New Japan

It's been almost nine years since MVP departed WWE to head overseas and join New Japan Pro Wrestling. MVP was featured prominently as a mid-card talent in WWE and won three championships, so it would seem that it was a difficult decision for MVP to leave for a foreign promotion.

But MVP says it was actually an easy decision to leave as he was just sick of the backstage politics in WWE. He talked more about deciding to leave for NJPW in an interview with VICELAND on their show The Wrestlers.

"Japanese wrestling is my favorite wrestling. Wrestling for New Japan Pro-Wrestling at the Tokyo Dome, that was my dream," said MVP. "Wrestlemania and the WWE was a goal. After having been at WWE and being somebody who was being groomed to be a world champion, I ran afoul of some politics and spent three months on a losing streak. I had a confrontation with one of the executives. He came out of his mouth to me, sideways. I told him, 'Man, you don't talk to me like that.' He told me to go f*** myself.

"At that moment I decided OK, I'm done here. I said, 'No, you go f*** yourself.'"

The WWE executive then stood up and told MVP that he wasn't afraid of him. MVP took that as a challenge and asked if he wanted to step outside.

"I leaned in and said, 'Man, do you want to do this here in front of your coworkers or do you want to go outside and do this like men?' He didn't want to fight. He wasn't expecting me to respond that way. Because of his position, he was thinking that I was just going to say 'OK' like so many guys do, but I was done. Mentally, I was done," revealed MVP.

MVP then asked for his release which was granted. He wanted to go to Japan because of his love for their style of wrestling and he ended up in New Japan a short time later. But despite the confrontation with the executive, WWE still held out hope that fences would be mended and MVP would return at some point.

"[WWE] said, OK, we'll give you a release. Come back in a year, two years, and the door is open. You'll be a bigger star when you come back, and I never made it back," said MVP who has gone on to wrestle for Impact Wrestling, ROH, MLW and other promotions. He did, however, make a one-night return to WWE when he appeared in a backstage skit at the 25th Anniversary of Raw.