Locker room drama seems to be a constant in professional wrestling. It doesn’t matter the era; there will always be stories of one act having “beef” with another act. The validity of those rumors is always up for debate, but frequently, where there’s smoke, there is some semblance of fire. Some recent rumors popped up about the Hurt Syndicate within All Elite Wrestling. The drama is one aspect of the issue but brings to light another conversation point. Should Tony Khan stop hiring former WWE talent?
On August 6, Fightful Select reported about “frustrations” surrounding The Hurt Syndicate, the popular faction made up of Shelton Benjamin, Bobby Lashley, and MVP. The problems seem to be with the latter individual. The report outlined rumors that started in recent months that MVP “rubbed a lot of people the wrong way resulting in heat, which is something that had been echoed by a number of talent for the last couple of months.”
The report didn’t mention any issues with Lashley and Benjamin, instead pointing to issues MVP has with “Speedball” Mike Bailey, and to whom the team would lose. The report claimed that MVP “made it clear that he didn’t want Hurt Syndicate losing to JetSpeed,” the duo of Bailey and Kevin Knight. Also, there was mention of MVP preferring the team to lose to younger, new talent, rather than dropping the title to FTR.
Since the initial report dropped, Speedball and MVP have appeared in a video together, jokingly taking shots at one another.
These stories stand out as “he said, she said,” but it does raise a question about the continued issues that several former WWE talent have had when joining All Elite Wrestling. There were long episodes of rumors about Aleister Black, Rusev, and Andrade during their time with the company. Each one of those performers has since returned to WWE as it is now under the leadership of Triple H. This trend has led some to believe that AEW should shy away from signing former members of the WWE roster, at least on the men’s side of things.
This wouldn’t be a bad idea. Are there examples of performers who’ve bucked that trend? Of course. Just look at Jon Moxley, Chris Jericho, Ricochet, and Swerve Strickland as examples. However, it is worth noting that these performers were never considered “Triple H guys” at any point in their run. Moxley and Jericho were multiple-time champions, but Ricochet and Strickland were never going to reach or even have the potential to reach main event status under Triple H. So AEW becomes a home where they can thrive and show what they are really capable of achieving. To them, AEW may be more of a final opportunity, rather than a holding spot until things change in WWE.
As with these rumors, the truth is typically somewhere in the middle. Still, it will be interesting to see what totally comes out about The Hurt Syndicate. Some fans are quickly turning on them as the rumors come out, while others are rallying behind the group. In due time, the narrative will be set, but it still raises the question of if AEW should be more hesitant when contracting performers from WWE.