After a decade of fighting his way through the South Florida independent scene and emerging a superstar in WWE, MVP’s dream will finally come true on Jan. 4.

It’s the day the Miami native performs before thousands of fans at the historic Tokyo Dome at Wrestle Kingdom 6, New Japan Pro Wrestling’s biggest show of the year.

“In the very first [Miami Herald] interview said my dream was to wrestle in the Tokyo Dome,” MVP said.

“Between now and then, barring unforeseen circumstances, I’m going to realize that dream. I’m also going to be on that short list of guys who wrestled at Wrestle Kingdom and WrestleMania. For me, that is a huge accomplishment. It is literally living the dream.”

It has been a little over a year since MVP shocked the world by announcing his decision to leave the bright lights of WWE. A good amount of soul searching and discontent with his current position in the company led to making up his mind. The time had come.

“I guess more than anything it was that my contract was coming to a close,” MVP said. “I had a year left on my contract. [Executive vice president of talent relations] John Laurinaitis was coming to me to re-sign like he had a number of times. I had actually been avoiding him because I hadn’t made my decision yet. I was still trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I hadn’t come to terms with my decision.

“On a professional level it was a culmination of a lot of things. I just wasn’t happy anymore and felt I wasn’t being given the opportunities that I had been given previously. It was time for me to make a decision, and I didn’t want to re-sign. I asked if I could be out of that final year so I could go and pursue my original dream of wrestling in Japan.”

The WWE executive and on-screen Raw general manager respected his decision.

“I have to say John Laurinaitis gets a bad rap from a lot of people,” MVP said. “He is in a really crappy position. His job makes you very unpopular. He and I had a good relationship. He was the guy that hired me and gave me my first opportunity. John Laurinaitis, a.k.a. Johnny Ace, spent 10 years in Japan with the All Japan [Pro Wrestling] promotion. He and I would talk about Japanese wrestling all the time over beers.

“The Japanese wrestling mark in me would ask him, “Tell me about wrestling Misawa for the Triple Crown,” or ‘Tell me about wrestling Kawada,’ or ‘Tell me about wrestling Steve Williams.’ I would just go down memory lane, when he would talk about all the big shows and wrestlers he had faced.

“He knew about my passion for Japanese wrestling. I made no secret about it. I would talk about it all the time. I expressed to him I wanted to leave here on good terms. There are guys that have left here in the past and have returned, who have done well. Japan is where I always wanted to be. When I presented it to him in those terms, because I didn’t speak to Vince [McMahon], I asked him to speak to Vince for me. He just understood that I wasn’t happy and needed to go. He was very accommodating. That was on a Tuesday at SmackDown!. He called me that Thursday to tell me he spoke to Vince, and Vince agreed to let me out. I can’t tell you how happy I was.”