MVP took on Chris Benoit in his first WrestleMania match in 2007, in a bout that he claimed “saved” his career in the WWE.
MVP wrestled Chris Benoit in the Canadian’s last WrestleMania match, when the pair clashed in a match at WrestleMania 23.
They clashed over Benoit’s United States Championship, and was one of the top feuds on Smackdown going into that year’s biggest show.
While MVP was defeated by the Canadian Crippler (named due to a horrible injury he caused in ECW) in a surprisingly good match that fans weren’t expecting from a young talent like MVP.
While Montel Vontavious Porter didn’t end up winning the United States Championship during this match, it did end up doing something even bigger for him.
It saved his WWE career.
MVP on Chris Benoit Match
WWE Superstar MVP revealed how his match with Chris Benoit at WrestleMania 23 saved his career in the WWE, and showed WWE officials that he could truly wrestle in the WWE.
MVP recently spoke to the Why It Ended podcast, talking about how his match with Chris Benoit opened people’s eyes as to how good he could be inside the ring.
In previous feuds, he had played the typical cowardly heel, against monsters like Kane, and MVP had not been given a chance to showcase his skills against a top wrestler like Benoit before.
However, once his match at WrestleMania 23, Stephanie McMahon confided in him that she didn’t know he could wrestle like that, to which Chris Benoit dryly replied “I did”.
“My sh*t with Benoit it put me on the map because all of a sudden they were like, ‘F*ck we didn’t know you could do that. With Kane, they always had me running away from him, being scared, but with Benoit, because he was a friend and mentor back in my indie days, he knew what I could do.”
“So when they put me in a feud with Benoit, all of a sudden people found out. ‘Oh sh*t, MVP can really wrestle. Like he can go.’ Yeah, dude, I can go. After our first WrestleMania match, I came back through the curtain, and we’re just celebrating and people are giving me high 5s and congratulating me and Stephanie [McMahon] and goes, ‘Wow, that was amazing! Who knew you could do that?!’”
“Chris Benoit in his typical deadpan Chris-fashion just stepped in front of me and looked at her and said: ‘I did.’”
MVP would go on to wrestle Benoit multiple times after WrestleMania, including in 30-minute bouts on house shows that, reportedly, tore the house down.
He lost again to Chris Benoit at Backlash 2007, before finally winning the United States Championship in a fantastic two-out-of-three falls match at Judgement Day 2007.