John Gaburick allegedly lied about his qualifications to land a major job in TNA, at least according to MVP, who did not hold back while looking back at what he considered serious management problems during his time with the company.
Speaking on Marking Out with MVP and Dwayne Sees, MVP was discussing what he believes went wrong with TNA during that period. His biggest criticism wasn’t aimed at the talent roster. Instead, he pointed directly at the people running the company and described the situation as “gross mismanagement.” MVP said there were people holding important positions who had no business being there, while Dixie Carter was surrounded by people trying to stay on her good side because she was putting money into the company.
“Back then, man, the gross, gross mismanagement. People in positions that should not have been in those positions. 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.”
MVP claimed people around Carter were constantly telling her how great she was because they wanted to keep the money flowing and remain in her favor.
“Everybody was in Dixie’s ear, how great she is and how awesome she is, and just doing everything to keep the money flowing in and, you know, to be on her good side.”
That brought MVP to John Gaburick, who was in charge when MVP arrived in TNA. MVP made it clear that he had very little confidence in Gaburick’s ability to handle the position.
“When I was there, I came in during the time when John Gaburick was in charge, and he had no clue.”
MVP then went much further, directly accusing Gaburick of misrepresenting his experience when he landed the TNA job. This is MVP’s allegation, and he did not provide documentation during the conversation to independently establish the claim.
“He lied about his qualifications to get that job. He had never done any of those jobs in WWE.”
MVP said the situation became a running joke between himself and Austin Aries. According to MVP, the two used to imagine what Gaburick’s interview with Dixie Carter must have been like.
“Me and Austin Aries used to joke about wishing we could be a fly on the wall when Dixie and Gaburick were just lying to each other during his interview.”
The comments came as MVP was discussing TNA’s long list of “what if” moments and questioning how differently things could have gone with stronger management. He later stressed that TNA never lacked talent, pointing to names such as AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Gail Kim and Awesome Kong before saying the real problem was management.
MVP clearly still has strong feelings about how TNA was being operated during his run, and his accusation about Gaburick is one of his sharpest shots yet. He didn’t frame the company’s struggles as a roster problem at all — he put much of the blame on the people making decisions behind the scenes.
What do you make of MVP’s claim that John Gaburick lied about his qualifications to get the TNA job? Do you think TNA could have had a very different run with different management in place? Let us know what you think and leave your feedback in the comments.
