After years away from the company, MVP made his return to WWE in 2020 at the Royal Rumble.
It turns out that this happened because of Paul Heyman when he was still the Raw Executive Director. Heyman talked about this when he did an interview with The Masked Man Show.
Heyman pitched MVP to be a wrestler, commentator, manager, and producer at first all starting at the Royal Rumble.
“I’m very proud of him as a human being because you talk about someone who didn’t let his own past drag him down. He came out of a situation and said, ‘Ok, how do I turn my life around?’ How do I live out my dreams even though I have this blemish on me that I’m never going to shake? How can I rise above this?’”
“MVP called me when I was executive director of RAW and said, ‘The Rumble is in Houston. You know I have a son. My son never saw me as MVP. Can you get me in the Rumble,’” Heyman revealed.
“I know how talented he is. I think that life beat him down so bad and he was trying to stay positive and stay inspiring to his son, but I think he forgot the greatness that he had to offer. I said to him, ‘I’ll make you a deal. I’ll get you in the Rumble if you work RAW the next night. Who do you like? Who do you want to work with?’ He said, ‘Mysterio.’ I said, ‘Okay, work with Rey Mysterio. I’ll make that match happen, but I want a match, not just an appearance in the Rumble.’”
Heyman went to Vince McMahon and other top officials about his idea and made it happen.
“Meanwhile, behind the scenes without him knowing, I went to all the appropriate parties and through protocol, and that includes Vince because that’s the autonomy, that’s the final say, and I pitched him to be a producer who brings his gear with him on the road. So if for some reason, if somebody misses a plane, a flight is canceled, or somebody gets sick or injured and we need a replacement, ‘Hey we have this legacy star, former U.S. Heavyweight Champion, MVP. Ballin’, and he can perform. We can plug him into a match. He’s there, he’s a producer, and people are learning from his experience. ‘Great let’s do that.”
“Then as I was doing the Bobby Lashley-Lana-Rusev triangle, I said, ‘You know what? Lashley ultimately should end up with MVP. That would be great.’ By the time he showed up at the Rumble, I had pitched him and got him hired for four jobs. He was wrestling, he was managing, he was commentating, and he was a producer. My theory was he may not last in three of them, but there’s no way they’re going to get rid of him on all four.”
Although Heyman didn’t know which role MVP would stay in going forward, he would at least get one.
“I had no idea which one he was going to end up keeping. If you would have told me he was going to end up as a commentator, great, as a producer, great, as a wrestler, great, as a mouthpiece for Bobby Lashley, great. I knew he would end up with at least one if not more of those, but at least one, and I knew he could concentrate on that one and excel at it.”
H/T to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription