signed to a developmental deal by WWE in 2004; he moved to Louisville, Kentucky to the Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) farm territory. There he formed a faction with Johnny Nitro; along with manager Melina, they were known as "MNM". MNM wrestled in OVW for around a year, winning the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship once, before being called up to the main SmackDown! roster, where Matthews was renamed Joey Mercury. In their first match for the SmackDown brand, in April 2005, they won the WWE Tag Team Championship from Rey Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero. They held the titles for three months, having successful titles defenses against the teams of Mysterio and Guerrero and Hardcore Holly and Charlie Haas, before dropping them to the new Legion of Doom (LOD) at The Great American Bash in July 2005. They recaptured the titles in a four-way match defeating The Mexicools, William Regal and Paul Burchill, and LOD, but lost them to Mysterio and Batista days before the Armageddon pay-per-view in December. Due to help from Mark Henry, they defeated Mysterio and Batista in a rematch on December 30 to win the Championship for the third time. Split with Nitro and Melina, reformation and departure (2006–2007) They began a rivalry with the team of Paul London and Brian Kendrick that lasted over three months, until the Judgment Day pay-per-view on May 21, 2006, where MNM lost the WWE Tag Team Championship to London and Kendrick. Nitro and Melina suddenly turned on Mercury, attacking him and breaking up the group. Later that night Nitro and Melina were fired from the SmackDown! brand in storyline, to facilitate their move to Raw, where they reappeared the following week. The legitimate reason for the team's sudden split was later revealed to be Mercury failing a WWE Wellness Policy drug test and being forced to serve a 30-day suspension. Mercury stayed off WWE television for six months. Mercury made a surprise return on the November 27, 2006 episode of Raw, temporarily reforming MNM with Nitro and Melina to take up the also recently reunited Hardys (Matt and Jeff) "open challenge" for December to Dismember. The Hardys went on to win the match at December to Dismember, but the feud continued across all three brands (Raw, ECW, and SmackDown!), and in a fatal-four way ladder match for the WWE Tag Team Championship at December's Armageddon event, also involving London and