MVP doesn’t want a retirement gift from Tony Khan—especially if that gift is the AEW World Championship. With his final match expected sometime in 2027, MVP revealed that he’d actually turn down a World Title run on his way out because he no longer believes he can deliver the kind of matches that should come with being AEW’s top champion.
Speaking on the Marking Out podcast, MVP admitted both his body and his desire to wrestle have changed. The explosiveness isn’t there anymore, but neither is the urge to push himself through the kind of workload he once accepted without thinking twice.
“I don’t have the explosiveness that I used to, and I don’t have the desire. My passion to get in that ring and have that match isn’t what it used to be. If Tony says, ‘Hey, as a gift to you for your career on the way out the door, I’d like to give you an AEW World Title run,’ I would say no.”
That’s not MVP trying to be humble. He genuinely doesn’t think putting the AEW World Championship on him at this stage of his career would be fair to the title—or the younger wrestlers he’d be expected to work with. He doesn’t want to work that hard anymore.
“I can’t! At this point in my career, I don’t feel that I could do the level of match I would want to be able to put on with the young talent that I’d be working with to do justice to the title. Physically, I can’t go like that anymore, and I don’t wanna work that hard. I’m spoiled, man. My friends beat people up and talk about it, you know?”
MVP knows that carrying a company’s top championship means being one of the wrestlers expected to sell tickets and then deliver when the main event arrives. At 52 years old, he has no interest in pretending he can—or wants to—keep doing that.
“When you’re at the world championship level and carrying the title for a company, you’re the poster boy for the company, and that’s an expectation. You gotta go out there and do the 20–25-minute main event match. You’re the reason for the ticket. I ain’t doing a 20-minute match anymore. If I’m doing a match now, I’ll give you 8–12 minutes.”
That’s about as straightforward as a wrestler can get about where he stands near the finish line. MVP isn’t asking AEW to give him one final championship because of everything he’s accomplished. He isn’t looking for a ceremonial run on top before walking away. If anything, he thinks putting the belt on him simply because he’s retiring would ask him to be something he knows he isn’t anymore.
Eight to twelve minutes? MVP can give you that. Twenty-five minutes with AEW’s younger stars while carrying the World Championship? He’s good.
Do you respect MVP for saying he’d turn down an AEW World Title run rather than accept one as a retirement gift? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below
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