A deeply personal motivation drove MVP’s surprise return to WWE in the 2020 Royal Rumble, as he wanted his young son to see him perform in WWE. In a new interview, the former United States Champion shared the heartwarming story of how his son’s love for wrestling inspired him to make one more run.
After leaving WWE in 2010, MVP spent a decade wrestling all over the world, from Japan to the independent circuit to TNA/Impact Wrestling. While he was still a successful and active performer, he was no longer on the global stage of WWE, a fact that became a powerful motivator after a trip to the toy aisle with his son.
On the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast, MVP explained that his son, Camden, had recently discovered wrestling and was a huge fan, but he had no idea that his own father was a wrestler. That realization led him to make a call to Paul Heyman.
“My son, Camden, he’s 10. He’ll be 11 next month, he discovered wrestling, and he didn’t know daddy was a wrestler. But he discovered wrestling, and he liked it. For me as a dad, it was just crazy that my son would teethe on my action figure. He has no idea, but for me, it was pretty cool. And I remember one day we were in the store, and we were in the toy aisle, and he’s pointing out, ‘Daddy, that’s Samoa Joe!’ He’s just pointing them out. He’s calling him by name. I’m like, when did you start watching wrestling? Then I felt some kind of way, because these were my colleagues, and I was still working independents and things like that, but I wasn’t on TV, and I thought man, I want my son to see daddy on TV. I want him to be able to walk down the toy aisle once and see, oh, look, there’s daddy. So I put in a call to Paul Heyman, because I knew that the Royal Rumble was coming to Houston that year.”
The call led to a surprise entry in the 2020 Royal Rumble, with his son in the crowd. The very next night on Raw, he was booked in a match against his son’s favorite wrestler, Rey Mysterio. For MVP, it was the perfect end of his goal.
“I got to be one of the surprise entrants in the 2020 Royal Rumble. And my son was in the crowd. It’s so cool because he even made it into one of the highlight commercials where you just see him going, ‘Yeah!’ That gave me something emotionally, because I never wanted to be a dad. I wanted to be single forever, my son was an oops, and now I’m so grateful for him in my life, because he makes me a better human being, and to be able to share that with him… After that, Paul Heyman asked me if I could make it to San Antonio the next day. And I was like, Yeah, sure. Easy pay, quick drive. I went and again, Paul E booked me to be in a match with Rey Mysterio on Raw, just a cool match. I wasn’t even under contract, but my son’s mother sent me a video of my son standing underneath the television during my entrance, so my son got to watch daddy wrestle his favorite wrestler. And again, that’s all I wanted. That was it.”
He is now a member of the AEW roster. You can hear his full interview on the latest episode of Insight with Chris Van Vliet.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit Insight with Chris Van Vliet with an h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
