Who Put MVP over during his first run on Smackdown?

[Da Big Champ]

I started wondering this when he got drafted back to Smackdown. His first run saw him become the U.S champion and WWE Tag champion. We also saw him in the main event and more in the world title picture near the end of 2007. What I want to know is who you think put MVP over. There are many possible people but for me it would have to be Kane. MVP had great matches with Kane and Kane made him look like a strong wrestler.
Who do you think put MVP over?

 

[The Mark of Zur-En-Arrh]

I'd agree, but i'd also have to say Benoit did a lot to help solidify MVPs position on the roster.

MVP and Ken Anderson both appeared on SD roughly the same time. They teamed together after their characters were established, and then both were given to SD's best veterans, The Undertaker and Kane, in order to get them over.

Now Anderson was doing a lot better than MVP imo, because not only did he have an outlnadish gimmick that the fans ate up every week, he was also going over ME'ers on a regular basis. He beat 7 former WHC in his first 6 months remember? So Anderson's credibility was building very well and people were talking about him as a golden prospect.

MVP however was working with a pretty crap gimmick, in that he was the most expensive free agent ever, even though nobody knew who he was, and wasn't chalking up major wins against anyone.

The Inferno match with Kane at Armageddon probably gave MVP's early career a major jump start. I feel he was struggling to connect with the crowd, but after he burned himself so severly, i think the fans respected him a bit more, and therefore paid more attention. I've always felt, that if you don't have great charisma or ring skills, taking stupid bumps is the only other way to get the fans' respect, especially in the Attitude era, since so many talentless nobodies got over by being the Hardcore champion i.e Steve Blackman.

Anyway.....

After fueding with The Big Red Monster, MVP then entered a US title fued with Benoit. They had a grand total of 3 matches, and i feel that Benoit brought out a lot in MVP and really gave him the chance to showcase his talents. Also add in the fact that their 3rd match was a 2/3 Falls match, where MVP won with 2 straight falls (something most fans would have never witnessed before) to win the title, over 'The Greates Technical Wrestler In The World..... er........ Then, and people were bound to take notice.

'Wow, he beat Benoit in 2 straight falls.! This guy's something to pay attention to.'

It's hard for a rookie to get over when taking on a Super Heavyweight imo, unless that SHW is someone like Undertaker who has speed and agility as well, because otherwise you've just got a 300lb of clay to fight against for 10 minutes. IF you've got unlimited stamina and strength like Cena or Batista have you'll do fine, but if not, you're always going to be limited to taking a pounding, and working the legs, which slows down the match pace, and audiences lose interest fairly quickly. By having the gimmick match where MVP was able to show how tough he is, and then moving on to wrestling someone with a similar style and build, complimented MVPs skills a lot more and he was able to show us what he could really do. The only guy who could complimented his style better would probably have been HBK.

Now that he's going to start fueding with Punk, i think we'll see a side of MVP that we haven't seen since his fued with Benoit.

 

[Da Big Champ]

I think MVP had a good gimmick while in his fued with Kane and people did respond to him but only when he would do a promo.
I agree that Benoit bought a lot of MVP out and help solidify MVPs position on the roster.
His inferno match with Kane was the end of their fued. A match that I think made MVP look good was their steel cage match which MVP won.
I remember Ken Anderson and MVP teamed a few times while in their fueds with Undertaker and Kane but I think WWE missed their shot with Anderson at Royal Rumble 2007 when he lost to Batista .
Kane made MVP look like he was in WWE to stay but Benoit made him look like a champion.

 

[The Mark of Zur-En-Arrh]

I think MVP had a good gimmick while in his fued with Kane and people did respond to him but only when he would do a promo.

The cocky heel approach usually draws decent heat, IF the talent is good on the mic. Thankfully for MVP, he is.

His inferno match with Kane was the end of their fued. A match that I think made MVP look good was their steel cage match which MVP won.

Totally for got about that cage match. Still think the Inferno match was what really did it.

I remember Ken Anderson and MVP teamed a few times while in their fueds with Undertaker and Kane but I think WWE missed their shot with Anderson at Royal Rumble 2007 when he lost to Batista.

This i don't fully agree with. The Rumble has a history of having sub par title matches so that the majority of the star power is in the Rumble itself (not that Batista/Kennedy at the Rumble was sub par, it was actually my favourite match on that card). I think they chose Kennedy because they wanted to test just how over he was, because he seemed to get over so easily. Once people started cheering Kennedy over Batista, i think that's what persuaded Creative to give him the MiTB briefcase. They missed the boat by taking it off of him just so Edge could have another throw away title reign. Even though Kennedy was hurt, they still had all year for him to cash in. But then again Edge only got the title because Taker was hurt, and then got hurt himself anyway, so who knows how 2007 would have gone?

Plus, ask yourself this. What would you rather have seen at WM23? Batista v Taker for the first time, or Taker v Kennedy for the 4th or 5th time? And personal opinion aside, which do you think would have been a better draw? Even though i'd have rather seen Kennedy/Taker for the title at WM, i realise Batista/Taker would draw a lot more money (and helped Batista quell all the 'you can't wrestle' flack he used to get.)

Kane made MVP look like he was in WWE to stay but Benoit made him look like a champion.

Totally agree. There's loads of guys who were made to look like they would stay, and did, but then achieved nothing of real merit, the prime example being Shelton Benjamin.

Thankfully for MVP, they gave him a title reign after an awesome fued rather than just winning the title on a fluke like some other long term talent did i.e. Carlito

 

[darbare]

without a doubt Benoit did....as you guys said earlier, Kane made it look like he was here to stay....Benoit gave him credibility to look like a world champ....MVPs best matches in the company are against Benoit in their series....after that his feud with Matt helped put him over more because of Matts popularity at the time...so its equally Matt and Benoit

 

[Da Big Champ]

It seems like WWE booked him well and made him look great. I was watching 1 of the old matches when MVP fueded with Kane and I was listening to JBL on commentery and wondered if he helped put MVP over as the cocky heel?
MVP has been put over by loads of people but for me Matt Hardy helped MVP but MVP helped Matt aswell.

 

[Ruthless-RKO]

let me be honest, when he would come with girls by his side and say he was the best ever, i thought, okay, im guessing he aint a good wrestler, then he came out with what triple h called power rangers costume, and wrestled, he was good.

who put him over?

kane, matt hardy, benoit gave him a great wrestlemania debut. also, the us title put him over, 343 days, the longest in wwe history and the 3rd longest in the titles history.

 

[dionlyone18]

You know..i have to say Kane..when he fued with kane and had those awsome matches with him he got alot of heat...no pun intended..and who can forget his awsome inferno match with kane..thats when i started hearing him get cheers even as a heel when he returned and was all bandaged up..soooo i believe kane really put him over

 

[1truefan]

I have to say Benoit sure Kane started him on the road or what not but during his feud with benoit MVP really stepped his game up. Even MVP says Benoit helped him develop his in ring ability. But his feud with Benoit is what made me take notice to Alvin Burke aka MVP

 

[Trill Co$by]

lol I think it was that old football tunnel that MVP used to have. It was so awesome seeing that thing and I wish Long would give it back to him.

What also got him over was Benoit. The guy turned MVP into a lean mean fighting machine and it paid off well on Smackdown. Raw hasn't been his best as of late, but that's because it's Raw. If people want to really see what MVP is made of, then they should keep tuning in to Smackdown.

 

[ThePh3nomonal1]

Most of you are going to say Kane or Rey mysterio (Armageddon 07) so I want to say something else so I say JBL cause he talked MVP so much even giving him some crazy ring with tiny US title on it, also I have to say ric flair for facing him I think at survivor series 07 or no way out 08 with his career on the line, that helped a fair bit but then WWE fucked him by making him have that stupid losing streak... One of the worst moves WWE has made since they unmasked Kane but that's for another thread...