Reason Former WWE Star Didn’t Sign With AEW For Faction Reunion

Published: Mar 19, 2026 by Dave Adamson | Last Updated: Mar 19, 2026 by Dave Adamson

Dave has been a website writer for WrestleTalk since October 2022, having previously written for Den of Geek, among a number of wrestling, movie and television-related sites. Dave has been around the independent wrestling scene for more than a decade, including behind-the-scenes.

WWE/AEW

The reason a former WWE star chose not to reunite with his teammates currently under AEW contract has been revealed.

A former member of The Hurt Business, Cedric Alexander recently re-signed with TNA Wrestling, having debuted there in June of last year.

This puts an end, for the time being, to any possibility of Alexander heading over to AEW to join The Hurt Syndicate, alongside MVP, Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin.

In a recent appearance on WRESTHINGS, Alexander revealed that he had conversations about a reunion, but it came down to timing, saying:

“It was just a timing thing. It worked out better this way, I feel.

“I’ve had conversations with them, with MVP, Shelton (Benjamin) and Bobby (Lashley), they’re in a different phase of their careers than I am. They’re all 15 or so years older than me, so for them, when they went, it was a case of ‘This is how we’re going to finish our careers as boys.’

“Of course, there’s a part of me that’s like, ‘Man, what about me?’ I helped make the group great, too, so I want to kind of jump in and do my thing with them, but at the same time, when TNA came to me, I was like, ‘Well, TNA is something I’ve been wanting to do. They seem to have interest in me, let’s see where this goes.’

“After the first three, four months of being with TNA, I was like ‘Man, this feels really good.’ It’s something that I hadn’t gotten from wrestling in a long time, so I felt compelled to stick with TNA.”

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A former WWE Cruiserweight Champion and having held the Raw Tag Team Championship with Shelton Benjamin, Alexander was released from his WWE contract in February of last year.

The Real Hurt Of The Business

No stranger to parting ways with WWE during his career, MVP has recently reflected on his relationship with Vince McMahon and Triple H, referring to the Chief Content Officer as a ‘coward and liar‘.

A focus of the COVID-19 Thunderdome era of WWE programming, the treatment of The Hurt Business after the pandemic ended would be criticized by Bobby Lashley.

The popularity was clearly still there, with MVP noting that the fans would often reference the faction, despite lacking a proper ending in WWE.

With MVP having recently signed a long-term contract extension, and Lashley & Benjamin being former AEW World Tag Team Champions, their All Elite future is no doubt assured under Tony Khan.

The AEW owner has also shared his thoughts on MVP, describing the on-screen authority figure as “one of the greatest minds in wrestling“.

At 36 years of age, at the time of writing, only one member of the MVP-led faction has been younger throughout its incarnations, with MJF joining briefly in May last year.

With both Lashley and Benjamin debuting in AEW separately back in 2024, there is some time to go before either men will match the multiple championship reigns in WWE, although the opportunities are likely to manifest.

If you use this transcription or any portion of it, please credit WrestleTalk.com and link to this page.