This news is pretty old from what I gather, but it was new to me, so maybe it'll be new to you.
In case you were wondering how MVP was doing over in Japan, he's currently the reigning and defending IWGP Intercontinental Champion - New Japan's first - and he's cut off most of his hair.
Here's some screengrabs from a NJPW YouTube video from a press conference they had back on the 4th (which, somehow, is not a holiday in Japan).
That's not a bad looking belt, either!
Here's the source video, if you've got 40 minutes to kill. Lots of people speak Japanese in it, so you could probably skip some of those parts. I've cued it up to MVP talking about WWE so you can get a feel for his new "speak with my hands and very slowly" promo style.
If you go back to the beginning, you can also see fellow English speaker Giant Bernard (formerly A-Train, formerly Prince Albert, formerly Matt Bloom) - SPOILER ALERT: he's still some scary lookin' pierced dude
Like his good friend @CMPunk, MVP is a wrestler worth following on Twitter. He's very bright, he's funny and entertaining, he calls out bullshit, and he replies back to you. Notable things he Tweeted about are being in a hotel bar atop Tokyo like Bill Murray in Lost in Translation just hours before the Tsunami hit Japan a few months ago. He's also very happy to be free of WWE, which he holds no malice towards (and if he does, he's smart enough not to air grievances on Twitter.) I've had a few exchanges with him, but my favorite was before one of his recent trips to Japan where I called him a Ronin, for leaving WWE and becoming a samurai without a master. He loved it and ReTweeted it proudly.
@The305MVP MVP I thank you! It describes me well!!! "@BackoftheHead: @The305MVP @davidbabylon @SheikOUT Kind of proud now for coining MVP as a Ronin."
If MVP Ronin shirts materialize, I'd like a cut of the T-shirt sales. Or a free shirt.
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Dude, you are so not alone on the Ron Killings bandwagon. Ron succeeded in getting votes from me in: Best Heel Most Improved Best Gimmick Most Underrated Best Interviewee and would have gotten a vote for Favorite Wrestler if I had 4 spots to give out.