David Otunga reflects on what could have been.
For the first half of the 2010s, David Otunga regularly wrestled for WWE. In 2015, however, he began transitioning to broadcast work, including commentary and hosting. Appearing on Insight With Chris Van Vliet, Otunga addressed when he knew it was time to step away from in-ring competition.
According to Otunga, that decision was made by WWE as they slotted him into non-wrestling roles. Still, Otunga continued to make creative pitches, one of which involved a stable similar to AEW’s The Hurt Syndicate (formerly The Hurt Business in WWE).
“That’s the thing, in my mind, I’ve never had my last match,” Otunga said. “It’s just where I was in the company and becoming an announcer and doing all that they didn’t really want me doing in ring stuff. You actually get a different contract where you are on an announcer’s contract instead of a talent one. So it just was they weren’t even thinking about me, booking me creatively, although I did pitch some ideas, and was gonna have my own stable. I wanted to, got a little bit of traction.”
“… I pitched something, I don’t know if I called it The Firm or what it was, but it was kind of what The Hurt Syndicate ended up becoming,” he continued. “But it was before that, so it was three years before that. I don’t know when they came out. It might even been longer, because it was 2019, this is before COVID, at least. But anyway, I was going to be the leader of that as a heel lawyer. And, yeah, they liked it, but it obviously didn’t [happen], they liked me better as an announcer.”
Under the banner, The Hurt Business formed in 2020, with MVP, Bobby Lashley, Shelton Benjamin, and Cedric Alexander. Together, the group enjoyed reigns as WWE Champion, United States Champion, and Raw Tag Team Champions. In 2024, MVP, Lashley, and Benjamin reunited in AEW as The Hurt Syndicate.
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