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PARKS: A tough October for MVP - Does WWE have a master plan or will his burial and punishment continue forever?

Nov 3, 2008 - 3:05:11 PM
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By Greg Parks, PWTorch Contributor

This article origianlly appeared two weeks ago in the Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter PDF as a PDF-exclusive bonus page. Each week, the 16 page Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter is mailed to and read by thousands of subscribers all over the world, plus the newsletter is published online for VIP members with PDF bonus pages beyond the main 16 including Brian Hoops's nostalgia columns, Jon Mezzera's Weekly Hits & Misses, and Greg Parks's feature column.

It's been a tough month for Smackdown's MVP, Montel Vontavious Porter. It all started when he mouthed off to a urine-test watcher and was reprimanded by WWE for it. Since then, he's been on quite the losing streak. The news broke in early September. On the final Smackdown before Unforgiven, he was summarily beaten by Shelton Benjamin in 3:45, hardly the length of match you'd think these two would go on Smackdown.

Then, at Unforgiven, MVP was pinned twice in the Championship Scramble, and didn't register any pinfalls himself. On the next Smackdown, MVP was ridiculed backstage by Triple H, with the champ wondering aloud why MVP was even in the fatal four-way later in the night. MVP finally got in a good showing the next week, taking Triple H to the limit in a non-title match, but still losing. That was mainly to add to the Triple H-Vladimir Kozlov program. On the last CW Smackdown, MVP took the pin in a tag match with Brian Kendrick, losing to Triple H and Jeff Hardy. On the first episode of Smackdown on MyNetwork TV, MVP once again took the pin in a tag situation, this time in an eight-man tag. Hurricane Helms even cut an inset promo on MVP during his entrance. This past week on Smackdown, he lost a one-on-one match, cleanly, to Jeff Hardy. That's a bad YEAR for some guys, let alone one month. But everything came to a head at No Mercy on Sunday.

MVP didn't have a match on the card, but he did appear on the broadcast. He tried to get into Vickie Guerrero's office to see why the highest-paid Smackdown sports-entertainer was not scheduled to compete. Big Show met him there and threatened him, a threat which MVP backed down from. Then, in the ring to complain, Randy Orton interrupted him. Orton threw some jabs at MVP, who was able to return some. Ted Dibiase, Manu, and Cody Rhodes followed suit and after jabbering with Orton, they turned their attention to MVP, who was still in the ring. MVP tried to side with them, but Dibiase basically told MVP to high-tail it, which he did. CM Punk and Kofi Kingston, two faces, met him at the top of the ramp and asked MVP to join them in attacking Team Priceless, a group they've both had trouble with lately. MVP agreed, but Punk and Kofi stopped short of the ring, sending MVP in alone to get beat up and thrown out of the ring. In the end, Punk and Kofi did come in and they were the ones standing tall at the end.

On a show devoid of any real heels at this point, so much so that they've had to rush Vladimir Kozlov and The Brian Kendrick to the main event and try to get on for a month without Edge, MVP would've been the perfect guy to push as a replacement. His work has gotten rave reviews over the past year, after being known for a while as the guy who dresses like a Power Ranger. MVP has become an entertaining personality in-and-out of the ring, on the mic and between the bells. His feud with Matt Hardy last year was top-notch. Yet, because of one indiscretion, the rug seems to have been pulled right out from under him.  

On the subject of the lack of heels on Smackdown, MVP would have been the perfect person to transplant into a feud with Triple H. He would've gotten some rub off of that, and the matches would've been great as well. Or an extended feud with Jeff Hardy, with the angle being that he has a history with Jeff's brother Matt. Instead, it appears Vladimir Kozlov has that spot sewn up, and is a lot less interesting in that role. Imagine MVP, the dastardly heel, playing Triple H and Jeff Hardy against one another, two faces in a respect feud that MVP turns sour by playing mind games with them. Not to mention the workrate in matches would be better with MVP instead of Kozlov. It appeared at one time that MVP was the #2 heel on the show after Edge, but now, he's relegated to undercard status.

I understand WWE having to punish MVP for what he did; no doubt about it. And the precedent has been set by WWE for punishing wrestlers for anything ranging from bad attitude to violating the wellness policy to not shaking the right wrestlers' hands backstage. In fact, when a wrestler who has been getting consistently pushed gets jobbed out week-after-week, the question amongst fans becomes: "I wonder what he did to get jobbed out like this." But I think they've gone overboard with MVP.

Take No Mercy for example. MVP was dissed, shunned, and put down by seven wrestlers, which has to be some kind of a record. The worst part was, he acted so un-MVP-like in those situations. He cowered from the threats Big Show made; he tried to join forces with Team Priceless, and then Punk & Kingston, and both groups treated him poorly. Then when Ted Dibiase, a younger wrestler with less experience, told MVP to get out of the ring, MVP did so without a peep. Sure, he said something heading up the ramp, but leaving without incident is not something MVP is known for. He then tried to join two faces for an attack and the FACES are the one that let the HEEL run into the buzzsaw of Team Priceless. I just didn't get that; in fact, I thought it made Kingston and Punk look like heels, suckering MVP into their group like that. MVP was left on the outside after they finished the beat-down, and ended up an afterthought. The segment was a nice way to get some guys a paycheck, but I thought MVP was absolutely buried there.

Like everything in wrestling, we really need to see how WWE capitalizes on this angle. If MVP comes out firing on Smackdown, back to his old self, taking no prisoners, cutting promos on everyone who wronged him in that segment, then challenging Big Show to a match, then I can understand a bit better why they did it. But it'll be tough for MVP to get his revenge on any of those wrestlers, since they're on the Raw brand. It could be to plant the seeds for later if anyone one of them switches brands, but that's beyond WWE's thinking at this point, in my opinion. "Planting seeds" and subtlety isn't what WWE is exactly known for. And I hope MVP's punishment is up soon; he's too good of a superstar for WWE to waste like this.  


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