Will Triple H Taking Over WWE Creative Mean The Hurt Business Returns?
With Paul Levesque (fka Triple H) now head of WWE creative, there will be some changes coming, at least if SummerSlam is any indication — within his first two weeks in the top job, Levesque brought up Iyo Sky, formerly known as Io Shirai in "NXT," and the released Dakota Kai to form a stable with Bayley. Meanwhile, another popular faction that fans have not forgotten about is Bobby Lashley's Hurt Business, which never got to perform live in front of fans, as they were only together for the pandemic era in WWE.
"I think Triple H is going to do anything that the fans want at this point in time," Lashley said in an exclusive interview with Wrestling Inc.'s Senior News Editor Nick Hausman. "Hurt Business 2.0 is on its way. You never, I never keep grudges with anyone. Me and MVP had a deal. We had a lot of chemistry together and we ran, we won world titles together, and everything was great, and then we fell apart. But do I have respect for MVP? Absolutely. I'm not going to take away what he did for me and my career, and I know that he has a lot of potential to do something more."
Levesque took over creative following his father-in-law, Vince McMahon, retiring from WWE in the midst of allegations of hush money payments made through company expenses to cover up alleged sexual misconduct. Levesque isn't the only person in his family to move up in the food chain as a result — his wife, Stephanie McMahon, and WWE President Nick Khan have officially taken over as co-CEOs of the company.
The Hurt Business was dripping with gold at one point in 2020, with Bobby Lashley holding the United States Championship while Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin held the "Raw" Tag Team Championships — Alexander's only taste of main roster gold thus far. The group started out with just Lashley and MVP, with MVP acting as mainly a manager to the Almighty, before adding Benjamin. The group of four officially formed in September, when Alexander turned on partners Ricochet and Apollo Crews, joining the Hurt Business.
Despite the group only fully forming in September 2020, the Hurt Business would not make it to WrestleMania 37 in 2021, as a few weeks before the event, Lashley and MVP kicked Benjamin and Alexander out of the stable. Lashley went on to successfully defend the WWE Championship at WrestleMania with MVP as his manager. MVP would remain Lashley's manager until the night after WrestleMania 38, when he turned on his client and joined forces with Omos. Following their feud, Lashley went on to defeat Theory for the United States Championship at Money in the Bank.
Alexander and Benjamin have since feuded and got back together as a tag team, but the duo has not found much success in the win column on "WWE Raw," losing most of their matches and not having any championship success since their one and only tag title reign.
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