MVP recently shared his philosophy on mentoring the younger generation of wrestlers. Speaking on his “Marking Out” podcast, MVP discussed the specific advice he gives to talent regarding match structure and psychology, noting that his critiques are always intended to help them improve.
He thinks that a common issue he sees is the overuse of false finishes, which can diminish the crowd’s reaction and hurt the overall quality of a match. During the podcast, MVP explained his reasoning for telling younger talent to “slow it down” and cut certain spots from their matches.
“If I’m telling you to slow it down and cut some of that stuff out, it’s not because I don’t want you to have a good match — it’s because I want you to have a better match. And I think I’ve talked about this before, but there are a few of the younger guys in AEW where I’ve told them, ‘Hey, everything was great, but you had too many false finishes. You didn’t need all those false finishes.’ You can hear it — because the first false finish, oh! The second false finish, oh! The third false finish, oh! And that fourth false finish, oh. [not as intense] You had them. It takes a while to get that experience — to know when to say, ‘No, take it home now. They’re not going to get any higher than this. Let’s go.’ That other stuff we had figured in? Cut it. Take it home.”
He specifically named one of AEW’s brightest young stars, Kyle Fletcher, as someone who was receptive to this exact critique.
“I may have talked about this before, but it’s definitely something that comes with experience. And if I’m telling you that, it’s not because I don’t want you to have the greatest match — it’s because I want you to. And you can hear it from the audience. There have been times when I’ve talked to, uh, like Kyle Fletcher, and we talked about it one time. He said, ‘Yeah, you’re right. I heard it. I got it.’ You know, don’t work against yourself.”