MLW’s Court Bauer Talks Reelz, AEW Poaching MLW Stars And WWE Lawsuit

MLW continues to rise in the world of pro wrestling, regardless of obstacles. Everything from COVID, to talent defections, to allegations of antitrust practices against WWE have failed to slow down Major League Wrestling, which recently announced a television deal with Reelz. Reelz airs in almost 70 million homes, and its own growth mirrors that of MLW, which recently announced a toy deal with Boss Fight Games.

“We have great talent, we have great core fans and we’ve had great stories, feuds and rivalries over the years. The one thing we needed was the platform,” said Bauer about MLW’s new TV deal. MLW’s increased exposure on a Top 25 network will afford the promotion a national platform. One that will make it difficult to overlook its contributions to building some of wrestling’s biggest stars of today.

Many of whom were siphoned off by AEW.

“When you go out there, people think Tony Schiavone’s big comeback started in AEW. No, he was in MLW for two-and-a-half years,” said Bauer. “MJF didn’t pop up in the scene in AEW. He was a multi-time champion in MLW, and worked with me and Bruce Prichard when Bruce was at MLW. Darby Allin, another example of that.”

“In a weird way, we were the best-kept secret in the cradle of combat sports when it comes to wrestling. And now is our opportunity, now that we have this great platform and partner with Reelz, to let the world know what’s going on.”

Court Bauer Weighs in on Enzo Amore vs. MJF Debate

MLW has acquired talent of its own from its competition, capitalizing on the opportunities created when talent from other promotions are released. EJ Nduka, one of hundreds of victims of WWE’s massive budget cuts over the years, has thrived in MLW. Nduka is a former MLW tag team champion alongside Calvin Tankman. Meanwhile Real1, the artist formerly known as Enzo Amore, has been a coup for MLW.

“He’s the most charismatic performer since The Rock,” said Bauer of Real1.

“It’s undeniable. You give him the microphone—and I’ve seen guys come close—but he didn’t cut promos until a few months ago in MLW. And he really hadn’t had that national stage since 2018, and now he’ll have that chance with Reelz.”

Bauer feels Real1, who has a penchant for writing his own material while also being able to improvise on the spot, has flourished in MLW’s environment. MLW affords more freedom to its performers compared to WWE’s well-oiled machine and staff of writers, where Bauer cut his teeth in the 2000’s. A top talker in the business, Real1 recently claimed he would destroy MJF in a promo. While Bauer was hesitant to pick a side, ever the promoter, he volunteered to book that feud himself.

“I would love to promote that one day!” began Bauer.

“I’ll say this: I love good talkers. Max was a generational talent, just as much as Real1 is the most charismatic man of his generation. Those two colliding, just on the mic, would be amazing. Wrestling is bell-to-bell, always. But also these strong personalities are so important to make wrestling have that undeniable spark when it’s good. My job is easy when I have a guy like Real1 in there. Or when I had MJF with MLW for two or three years. He makes the gameplan simple: get yourself over. That’s the essence of this business. Those two guys, when they walk out there, there’s a reaction.”

“I would love to see that,” continued Bauer. “I don’t know if we would score that on points, but I’m mesmerized by the two of them.”

Bauer likens the MJF’s and Real1’s of the world to transcendent stars like Roddy Piper, John Cena and Hulk Hogan, who helped move the wrestling business forward. With wrestling getting hot in a time period where three promotions have national TV deals, and industry leader WWE continues to break business records in its sleep, MLW stands to benefit from the increased demand for pro wrestling.

Court Bauer Believes Wrestling is in a Boom Period

“I think for a long time, wrestling was missing a lot of [transcendent stars]. There was kind of a scorched-earth effect. And now to see wrestling—where it’s at is very healthy. You have us entering the picture on national TV, 68.7 million households on Reelz, a Top 25 network. To have such a presence in a great place now, you have all these great options.”

Being in more homes through Reelz means increased opportunity to convert television viewers to pay-per-view customers. As WWE makes its march toward WrestleMania season, and AEW is still in the process of deciding which pay-per-view is its WrestleMania, MLW is developing its own blueprint to identify its own biggest show of the year.

“We’re starting to build out, and we’re talking with our streaming partners about marquee events. Some people call them pay-per-views, we call them marquee events. What are those cornerstones going to be for us on the horizon? I think it’s important that fans have that critical climax to an event where everything converges, and you’re getting that journey to the point where now it’s time to punch the ticket to see it live. We’re deep in those conversations of shaping what those shows are going to be. Will it be MLW SuperFight? Will it be something else? We’ll be rolling out that stuff soon.”

MLW Lawsuit Against WWE, AEW Scouting MLW Talent

While the American pro wrestling landscape has proven to be able to support no less than four national promotions (WWE, MLW, AEW-ROH and IMPACT Wrestling), competition between the organizations remains fierce, and sometimes, bitter. Bauer is in the midst of an antitrust lawsuit against WWE stemming from claims that the promotion blocked an MLW deal with the Fox-owned Tubi channel. Fox is a television partner with WWE, where SmackDown on Fox airs on Friday nights.

WWE responded to these allegations, stating “WWE believes these claims have no merit and intends to vigorously defend itself against them.”

“When you look at WWE’s market share, and their tactics and how they operate, they are the biggest threat to any challenger in the space,” said Bauer. “They try to do their best to suppress [their competition’s] ascension. The narrative over the years if you ask the guys at Ring of Honor back in the day or Jim Crockett back in the day, or all those companies, they’re going to have the same experience as I have.”

Bauer also mentioned Tony Khan’s apparent scouting of MLW talent for AEW as another competitive hurdle for the company.

“Who has done the real damage to us? Back in the day in Orlando, in 2018, Tony Khan would come to Gilt nightclub and look at all the talent he saw there,” said Bauer.

“We’re going through the usual pre-trial process, we’re getting ready for discovery [against WWE]. If there was ever an opportunity to get a live screen, the discovery process is certainly something I think a lot of fans would find insightful and entertaining but educational seeing practices with WWE. Part of this process for us is going through it, and at the end of the day—no matter who the owner is of WWE—we look forward to seeing them in court.”

MLW Underground premieres on Reelz today with a start time of 10:00 pm EST, 7:00 pm PST.