MVP says TNA was grossly mismanaged during his time there, and has named John Gaburick as the executive he holds responsible.
Speaking on Marking Out with MVP and Dwayne Swayze, he was asked what the biggest missed opportunity of his TNA run was.
“I would say because back then, man, there was gross, gross mismanagement. People in positions that should not have been in those positions.”
He started with Dixie Carter, TNA’s president at the time.
“Dixie was funneling money into the company, so you had to placate her and give her some sense of importance and allow her to contribute on screen because that’s what she wanted. Everyone else has told the story. Everybody was in Dixie’s ear about how great she is and how awesome she is, and just doing everything to keep the money flowing in and to be on her good side.”
Then he named the executive he worked under.
“When I was there, I came in during the time when John Gaburick was in charge, and he had no clue. He lied about his qualifications to get that job. He had never done any of those jobs in WWE, and Austin Aries and I used to joke about wishing we could be a fly on the wall when Dixie and Deborah were just lying to each other during this interview.”
The public record does not support part of that. Gaburick was hired by TNA in June 2013 as Executive Vice President of Television Production, reporting directly to Carter, after 13 years at WWE, where he was Vice President of Television Production and worked on the early seasons of Tough Enough. His TNA role later expanded to cover talent, creative, and production. MVP’s account is that Gaburick had not done those jobs at WWE.
Gaburick left the company in January 2018 after four and a half years, having stayed on in a consultancy capacity following Anthem’s takeover. He has not responded to MVP’s comments. MVP went further, describing two specific incidents he says he witnessed.
“I was there when Big was drunk and popped off out the mouth to Samoa Joe, and Samoa Joe said, ‘Got you, I’m out. I was there when, again, Big, he was drunk. It was after the Wembley show. He was drinking wine and popping off slick. And Bobby Roode, one of the coolest, even-keeled guys in the world, he got hot.”
“I watched some bad business go down, and then some really big talents left because of that guy.”
Samoa Joe left TNA in early 2015 and signed with WWE. Bobby Roode followed in 2016. Both went on to substantial WWE runs.
MVP said he has a longer version of the story and invited legal action if anybody objects.
“I need to tell that whole story in full detail of what happened to me at Impact, the whole Hernandez debacle with Lucha Underground, and how Gaburick screwed it all up. And if you want to sue me, I invite discovery. Please, because I ain’t saying nothing that is not true. Everything is the truth.”
The Hernandez situation he refers to involved TNA talent appearing on Lucha Underground during a period when the two companies had overlapping commitments, which led to a public dispute at the time.
Not everybody’s account of Gaburick’s arrival matches MVP’s. Reports from mid-2013 said the TNA locker room responded positively to his working the Gorilla position and drew a favorable comparison to Bruce Prichard, who had recently been released from the same area of the company.
MVP was with TNA from 2014, working as a wrestler and briefly as an on-screen authority figure. He was among the talent who left as the company’s television situation deteriorated. MVP now works for AEW, appearing as a manager.
