Backstage Report On The Hurt Syndicate Having Heat Within AEW

The Hurt Syndicate have been one of the most dominant forces in all of AEW since they debuted in October 2024, capturing the AEW Tag Team Championships from Private Party at the end of January 2025. However, it seems that they might have rubbed a few people the wrong way according to some recent reports.

X (formerly known as Twitter) user JCup2013 of The Wrestling Binder had claimed that the group, but more specifically MVP, had some heat on him backstage after annoying a few people in AEW, something that had been echoed by various talents in recent months according to Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select. Sapp noted that MVP has reportedly made it very clear to those in AEW that he is not a fan of "Speedball" Mike Bailey, and that he didn't want Bobby Lashley or Shelton Benjamin losing the AEW Tag Team Championships to JetSpeed under any circumstances. Sapp noted that it was never confirmed if JetSpeed winning the titles was ever the plan, or what exactly MVP's problem with Bailey is, but given that the locker room is apparently in the best shape it's been in from a morale standpoint in some time, most of the roster have just dismissed issues such as this.

These reports of backstage heat have led some fans to wonder if the recent decision to have MJF be dropped from the group has anything to do with it. Sapp explained that, while it was hinted at that MJF being part of The Hurt Syndicate was originally meant to last a little longer, there is no heat between the two parties, and that there are zero issues behind the scenes between MJF and The Hurt Syndicate. As for the other rumors, Fightful were unable to speak on them due to them being just that, rumors.

Since MVP didn't want Lashley and Benjamin losing their titles to Bailey and Kevin Knight, this should have opened the door for a whole host of tag teams to step up and become top challengers. However, that hasn't happened either as The Hurt Syndicate are reportedly not too keen on playing ball with other teams.

Fightful noted that there have been a number of creative pitches for The Hurt Syndicate in recent months, although it's unclear how far some of those pitches actually went, but one pitch was for FTR to dethrone Lashley and Benjamin at AEW All In Texas on July 12. The idea was for FTR to begin something of a redemption story that would lead them back to being babyface champions, but the claim internally is that The Hurt Syndicate said no to losing to FTR at All In, as well as Forbidden Door which hasn't even happened yet. In response, FTR were also pitched to face Swerve Strickland and Will Ospreay, but those plans have been shelved due to Ospreay's recent injury diagnosis, and their story with Cope and Christian Cage was halted due to Cage wanting to conclude his story with Nick Wayne and The Patriarchy.

If FTR and JetSpeed are out of the question, then what teams are The Hurt Syndicate comfortable losing to? According to sources in AEW, MVP would rather have a younger team beat Lashley and Benjamin, with his personal preferences being the likes of the Gates of Agony, Private Party, or The Outrunners. With that said, the problem with those three teams is that The Hurt Syndicate have already beaten them all convincingly, and while Strickland and Ospreay were once again mentioned in this discussion, any plans involving the two teams were scrapped due to Ospreay being hurt.

Overall, there's currently no indication that any member of The Hurt Syndicate will be leaving AEW as they are all under multi-year deals that were signed less than a year ago, but the frustration from the locker room about the trio being heels that beat up everyone, but also do cool moves and are friendly with the fans, makes it difficult to see where any team could come in and realistically challenge them, especially if they aren't fond of losing to certain individuals.