On the May 11, 2020 episode of Raw, MVP aligned himself with Bobby Lashley, with MVP promising to manage Lashley to a WWE Championship reign. [1] At Backlash, Lashley failed to capture the WWE Championship from Drew McIntyre following a distraction from his on-screen wife Lana. [2] [3] The following night on Raw, Lashley blamed Lana for his loss at Backlash and he would then ask for a divorce, thus ending their romantic storyline. [4]
Lashley defended the title against On the June 22 episode of Raw, Lashley attacked United States Champion Apollo Crews and placed him in his full nelson hold after he turned down MVP's offer to join them. [5] After defeating Crews in a non-title match, [6] MVP unveiled a new United States Championship design and declared himself the "real" United States Champion. [7] [8] This set up a match between Crews and MVP at The Horror Show at Extreme Rules; however, Crews was pulled out from the match the day of the event, with the reason given by WWE being that he was not declared medically fit to compete, while media such as Forbes reported rumors that Crews had tested positive for COVID-19. [9] As a result, MVP won the match by forfeit, and afterwards, declared himself the new United States Champion; however, this was not recognized by WWE. [10] The following night on Raw, MVP and Lashley added Shelton Benjamin into their group as the duo helped Benjamin capture the 24/7 Championship from R-Truth. The group was formally named "The Hurt Business", and the faction was presented as a high-end team, often wearing expensive, fashionable suits. [11] Crews returned from hiatus on the August 3 episode of Raw and retained his title against MVP, taking the new title design in the process. [12] Following this, The Hurt Business began feuding with Crews' allies, Ricochet and Cedric Alexander, with both groups exchanging victories and attacks throughout the following weeks on Raw. During his time in the stable, Benjamin won the 24/7 Championships two more times, both coming on the August 17 episode of Raw. [13]
While MVP lost another title match against Crews at SummerSlam, [14] Lashley would defeat Crews at Payback to win the WWE United States Championship. [15] On the September 7 episode of Raw, Cedric Alexander joined The Hurt Business. [16]
While Lashley defended the title against Slapjack, at Hell in a Cell, [17] Cedric and Benjamin won the Tag Team Championships from The New Day at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs. [18] Despite Lashley lost the United States Championship at Elimination Chamber, [19] he defeated The Miz on the March 1 episode of Raw to win the WWE Championship, becoming the third African-American to win the title. [20]
On the March 15 episode of Raw, Alexander and Benjamin lost the Raw Tag Team Championship back to The New Day, ending their reign at 85 days. [21] On the March 29 episode of Raw, Lashley lambasted Alexander and Benjamin due to them losing the Raw Tag Team Championships and losing to Drew McIntyre in a 2-on-1 handicap match, a loss that meant they would be barred from ringside at Lashley's WWE Championship match at WrestleMania 37 against McIntyre. This led to Lashley attacking Alexander and Benjamin and declaring that The Hurt Business was over for the two of them, thus kicking them out of the faction. [22] While Benjamin and Alexander subsequently started to feud with each other, MVP continued to reference The Hurt Business on television, as well as state on social media that the group was still in action, but it just composed of him and Lashley.
Lashley would go on to retain his title by defeating Drew McIntyre in three consecutive title defenses. The first was in the opening match of WrestleMania 37, [23] the second at WrestleMania Backlash in a triple threat match against McIntyre and Strowman, then finally at Hell in a Cell in a Last Chance Hell in a Cell match. This removed McIntyre from title contention for the duration of Lashley's reign. [24] [25] Lashley would begin feuding with Kofi Kingston where a match for the WWE Championship was made between the two at Money in the Bank. At the event, Lashley retained the title against Kingston. [26] On the July 19 episode of Raw, Goldberg would return and challenge Lashley for the WWE Championship. Initially, Lashley would reject the challenge at first, but on the August 2 episode of Raw, Lashley would accept Goldberg's challenge and the match would be made official for SummerSlam. At the event, Lashley would retain the WWE Championship due to referee stoppage after Goldberg could no longer continue. [27] On the September 13 episode of Raw, after successfully defending the title against Randy Orton, Lashley lost the WWE Championship to Big E who cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase, ending his reign at 196 days. On the same episode of Raw, MVP was put out of action due to injury for an undetermined period of time. [28] [29]
Departure of Lashley and MVP and final separation (2022)
On the January 10, 2022 episode of Raw, Lashley told Alexander and Benjamin that he worked alone and that "there is no more Hurt Business", and later that night the duo would attack him, confirming MVP and Lashley's departure and dissolving the team as a stable in the process. [35]
Benjamin and Alexander would continue to function as a tag team and continued to attack Lashley on the following episodes of Raw, being referred to as The Hurt Business by the commentary team until August 8, 2022 when Alexander defeated Benjamin in the Main Event tapings. [36] [37]
