I constantly hear about how great MVP is from various columnists and message board posters around the internet. Apparently, he’s the next big thing and should be pushed to face Randy Orton pretty much immediately. Trained in front of all of us by Chris Benoit, he’s among the more differently styled workers in the WWE, cuts a great promo, and even has the crowd interaction portion of his moveset down cold. He’s basically got it all… so why doesn’t the crowd react more to him?
MVP just doesn’t get the crowd responses the WWE would look for when pushing a guy to the top. Often his entrances get only a small pop and, during matches, the crowd is completely silent until the ballin’ elbow drop. If the goal is to make money and entertain fans, how can the WWE justify pushing a guy who simply doesn’t get that great of a response, regardless of how entertaining and good he might or might not be?
A lot of MVP’s problem is that as good as he’s been, he has absolutely no nose for hot angles. Some guys turn whatever they touch to gold. Chris Jericho took the same silly mask feud that Kane had with Rey Misterio and turned it into a classic. MVP, through both booking and his own talent, doesn’t do that. Besides his memorable feud with Matt Hardy and notable one with Chris Benoit (for reasons that had little to do with MVP himself), what else has he done that’s notable? He was the U.S. Champion for what felt like ages, but he failed to deliver any singularly great matches in that role. He had a losing streak as a heel, but that never really paid off in any meaning way either. He turned face by almost casually allying himself with other faces, and his Raw feud with Regal never even really began.
This past week on Raw, MVP was given another chance to really shine. He had a match with Triple H that he was destined to lose. Here he needed a huge performance to boost the company and fans opinions of him, similar to the matches Chris Jericho, Tajiri, Shelton Benjamin, and Jeff Hardy have had with Hunter through the years. In losing to Hunter in an immediately forgettable match, MVP has merely added another missed opportunity to his ever growing list of them.
MVP needs a heated feud and great matches for him to ever reach his potential and be pushed to the moon, as the net seems to deem his destiny. Until he does that, he’d be just another flash-in-the-pan, pushed short term before he’s over for the fans to turn on.
Saturday, March 20
Live Events
!Bang!
Television Taping
Ocala, FL – 7:00 pm
CHIKARA
“Wit, Verve, and a Bit o’ Nerve”
Palmer Community Center
Easton, PA – 6:30 pm
Matches include Eddie Kingston vs. Pink Ant and Los Ice Creams vs. Daisee Haze/Sara Del Rey
Florida Championship Wrestling
Orlando Armory
Orlando, FL – 7:30 pm
Jersey All Pro Wrestling
“Wild Card”
Rahway Rec Center
Rahway, NJ – 8:00 pm
Matches include Samoa Joe vs. Kazuchika Okada, Teddy Hart/Jack Evans vs. Generation Me, and Dan Maff, the Heavy Hitters, Sara del Rey, Devon Moore, and Bandido Jr. will all defend their titles against Wild Card opponents
NWA Anarchy
Television Taping
NWA TV Arena
Cornelia, GA
Ohio Valley Wrestling
Davis Arena
Louisville, KY – 7:30
This event is a fundraiser for the Sertoma Foundation.
Ring of Honor
International Centre
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada – 7:30 pm
Matches include Kenny Omega vs. Davey Richards, Chris Hero vs. El Generico, and Colt Cabana vs. Steve Corino
World League Wrestling
North County Middle School
Deslodge, MO – 7:00 pm
WWE Raw
Tucson Convention Center
Tucson, AZ – 7:30 pm
WWE Smackdown
Visalia Convention Center
Visalia, CA – 7:30 pm
Television Broadcasts
AAA Lucha Libre
Television Broadcast on Galavision – 4:30 pm eastern
NWA Anarchy
Television Broadcast on AMG-TV Network – 7:30 pm eastern
Ohio Valley Wrestling
Television Broadcast – WOBZ-TV9 – 9:00 pm
Television Broadcast – WKYT-TV – 11:00 pm
Sunday, March 21
Live Events
CHIKARA
“Testimony of Evil”
Knights of Columbus Hall
Fairfield, CT – 3:30 pm
Matches include Team Frightening vs. Bruderschaft and Eddie Kingston vs. Lince Dorado
CMLL Lucha Libre
Television Taping
Arena Coliseo
Mexico City, Mexico – 5:00 pm
Matches include Mistico/ Hector Garza/ Blue Panther vs. Taichi/ Mr. Niebla/ Negro Casas and Toscano/ Hijo del Fantasma/ Valiente vs. Euforia/ Vangellys/ Okumura
TNA
Destination X
Impact Zone
Orlando, FL
Matches include Beer Money vs. Morgan/Hernandez and an Ultimate X match
Television Broadcasts
Florida Championship Wrestling
Television Broadcast on Bright House Sports Network – 6:00 pm
TNA Destination X
Live Pay-Per-View broadcast at 8:00 pm
Matches include Beer Money vs. Morgan/Hernandez and an Ultimate X match
WWE AM Raw
Television Broadcast on USA Network – 2:00 AM
If you would like your promotion to be included on the weekly calendar, please send an email to davidb@insidepulse.com with either your upcoming schedule or a link to your upcoming events on your website.
Monday Night Wars - what are you watching this week?
- RAW (44%, 136 Votes)
- TNA (33%, 102 Votes)
- Recording and watching all (9%, 28 Votes)
- Flipping around (8%, 26 Votes)
- None (3%, 9 Votes)
- ROH (2%, 7 Votes)
Total Voters: 308
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I think the booking is more to blame than the wrestler in this instance. MVP was doing just fine in his feuds with both of the Hardy’s and then the losing streak began and killed his momentum. This would have been fine if the angle had been booked to build up to his face turn rather than just meander there. Good face turns usually happen because the crowd begins supporting a wrestler so much that they start to acknowledge it, but in MVP’s case he just kept losing till he was humble and then he was a face because that’s a face quality. I think he was very over the night that he stood up to Randy Orton, but it would have been even better if he’d done it as the cocky heel he’d started as. That would have been a great moment for a face turn.
The Regal feud did nothing for him because Regal is constantly booked to lose in TV matches that seldom last more than a couple of minutes (see Regal vs. Punk, C.M). They should have been having great matches which could have really benefitted MVP, but Regal just doesn’t ever get to look like a real threat to the title so MVP doesn’t really gain any popularity by defeating him. Now he’s without the title and he hasn’t even been receiving any significant mic time, it’s no wonder he appears to be floundering.
I think that the best way to get MVP over right now would be a to reach into the WWE’s bag of tricks and pull out the wacky partner gimmick. The Rock got over by teaming with Mankind, Booker got over by teaming with Goldust, put MVP with Santino and have them take on the Legacy and I think an exponential growth in overness would be guaran-damn-teed.
” If the goal is to make money and entertain fans, how can the WWE justify pushing a guy who simply doesn’t get that great of a response, regardless of how entertaining and good he might or might not be? A lot of MVP’s problem is that as good as he’s been, he has absolutely no nose for hot angles. ” – Aaron Glazer
The answer to your question is: THE WRITERS have to put him in a main event feud. Even if he doesn’t win the belt, put him in the chase! THE WRITERS need to push MVP, give him a chance.
Good article, but the problem is that in order for MVP to take the next step he has to be put in feuds with top guys that he has a chance to beat. The best candidate would have been Jericho. No one expected HHH to lose to him, so the crowd didn’t care. The move to Raw didn’t help either. At the least he should have been feuding with Christian or Swagger for the ECW belt. His learning curve ended when he was drafted.
I don’t think MVP should be main eventing PPV’s right now but I do think he should be viewed as capable of that and someone the WWE should be pushing. But you are right in that he needs to make his mark in a few good feuds.
Honestly I think that his character was better when he was a rib on the athletes that most of us love to hate. Taking away that edge makes him generic pretty much just like the wwe did once upon a time with John Cena.
I don’t really see him getting main event time after the way he was buried with the H’s this past Monday.
Even with Helmsley on one leg, the dreaded pedigree was administered almost at will.
Not a way to build up anyone………
That match with Triple H existed solely to set up Hunter’s leg as a target for next week, so really anyone could have been in there. It doesn’t seem like losing sleep over either way. Other than that, I’m gonna go with the consensus; I think the onus falls on creative to give him something to do, since he doesn’t have the freedom to choose his own feuds the way Jericho does (I assume).
Also, I’m glad Mr. Uppercut used his real name and like his idea. He and Santino could be a fun pair. Or he could take Hornswoggle under his wing and remake him in his image.
Ballin’ Hornswoggle would be amazing.
I forget who said this already, but it wouldn’t hurt if the WWE gave the fans something to care about as it comes to MVP…the man’s got a compelling life story – the thug who decided to do something real with his life – that has been highlighted in legit stories in legit newspapers.
I guess you’ll know the WWE is serious about MVP when they pull that trick out of their bag. Til then, I guess we’ll just have to wait…
Looks like someone read next week’s spoilers…
MVP = Solid midcarder, that’s about all. Honestly, the only reason he gets so much TV time is because the internet community loves him, and the real life press he gets from dating The View anchor. After years of watching him, I just don’t see the talent people claims to have. He is just kinda generic.
i agree with LOLWUT a midcarder and i also think that he should be pushed more.