Tag: Court Bauer

MLW relocating to Charleston, South Carolina: ‘A city with heritage and momentum’

Posted on by Ian Carey

Ahead of its event in the city this week, MLW has announced it is moving its offices to Charleston, South Carolina.

MLW will present its Don Gato Tequila Live Special at the Charleston Music Hall on Thursday night and Court Bauer spoke with Mike Mooneyham of the Post & Courier about the promotion moving to the city full time.

“Charleston isn’t just hosting Major League Wrestling anymore — it’s home. I’m thrilled to officially announce that MLW is moving its league headquarters to Charleston, South Carolina,” Bauer said Monday night.

“Charleston has real wrestling lineage, and it also has one of the strongest, healthiest business sectors in the country right now. The city is booming — tech, hospitality, entertainment — everything is on the rise. That kind of ecosystem is exactly what MLW wants to be part of. Combine that with Charleston’s connection to Crockett, WCW and decades of Southern wrestling, and the decision became obvious. This is a city with heritage and momentum — and that’s a rare combination.”

MLW is in the process of closing down its previous office in Westchester, New York. Bauer also says the move will bring jobs to Charleston.

“We’re bringing production, creative and live-event jobs to Charleston. We’re proud to join Charleston’s growing entertainment and sports community,” Bauer continued.

“Fans are already coming in from out of state for our MLW x Don Gato Live Wrestling Special on Thursday — staying in local hotels, eating at local restaurants, supporting local businesses. That’s good for Charleston now, and it’s only going to grow from here.”

Thursday’s show will feature the finals of the 2025 Opera Cup with Mistico vs. Volador Jr. The MLW World Heavyweight Championship will be on the line as well when Mads Krule Krugger defends against Brock Anderson. The match steps from Krugger electrocuting CW Anderson in the Chamber of Horrors match last month. Matt Riddle vs. Killer Kross is also booked for the show. The full lineup is below:

MLW x Don Gato Tequila: Live Special lineup for November 20:

  • 2025 Opera Cup Finals: Mistico vs. Volador Jr.
  • Matt Riddle vs. Killer Kross (w/ Scarlett Bordeaux)
  • Bunkhouse match: MLW World Heavyweight Champion Mads Krule Krugger defends against Brock Anderson (w/ Arn Anderson)
  • MLW World Tag Team Champions The Skyscrapers (Bishop Dyer & Donovan Dijak) defend against The Good Brothers (Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows)
  • Shotzi Blackheart vs. Priscilla Kelly
  • Los Panthers (Blue Panther & Hijo de Blue Panther) vs. Los Atlantis (Atlantis & Atlantis Jr.) vs. Los Felinos (Felino & Felino Jr.) vs. El Galeon Fantasma (Difunto & Barboza)
  • MLW Middleweight Champion Templario defends against Guerrero Maya Jr.
  • Isla Dawn vs. Scarlett Bordeaux
  • Lightning match: Diego Hill vs. Okumura vs. Stigma
https://twitter.com/MLW/status/1989739432417923480

Wrestling Observer Live: Dynamite review, Adam Cole injury, NXT notes, Court Bauer interview

Posted on by Bryan Alvarez

Wrestling Observer Live with Bryan Alvarez and Mike Sempervive is back with tons to talk about including last night’s AEW Dynamite, Adam Cole’s injury, MLW now working with New Japan and CMLL including an appearance by Court Bauer to talk about it, and more. A fun show as always so check it out~!

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Court Bauer: MLW taking Jacob Fatu charity no-show allegations ‘very seriously’

Posted on by Ian Carey

Court Bauer has commented on the recent allegations regarding MLW National Openweight Champion Jacob Fatu. 

Nonprofit organization Jake’s Network of Hope alleges Fatu no-showed their event last month and has not returned money he was pre-paid to wrestle on the show. The nonprofit says Fatu has “ghosted” them since.  

Bauer told In The Weeds recently that MLW is monitoring the situation. 

“What I can say is that we’re watching it very carefully. We take it very seriously. Fatu books himself on third-party shows, we have no involvement with that but it’s something we’ve had meetings on and we’re watching carefully and we’re continuing to monitor it and learn more about it,” Bauer said

“I think a lot of us, probably, work with charities, so when you see something like that, how does it make you feel? So, that’s something that we are genuinely watching,” he continued. 

Fatu has not commented on the allegations from Jake’s Network of Hope. However, the Wisconsin-based nonprofit told NBC that a famous member of the Anoa’i/Fatu family reached out and promised to attend the fundraising event next year. 

Fatu recently won the MLW National Openweight Championship. He is scheduled to defend the title on Saturday at Never Say Never against Calvin Tankman. The show will be the first live event for MLW as part of the FITE+ program. 

MLW notes: Richard Holliday free agency, live televised shows coming this year

Posted on by Josh Nason

Richard Holliday is a free agent, but MLW will welcome him back if he wants to return.

MLW founder Court Bauer revealed the news during a Tuesday appearance on Busted Open Radio, saying Holliday’s contract expired during his chemotherapy treatments which were completed earlier this year. 

Holliday revealed last December that he was diagnosed with stage four Hodgkins lymphoma. He has been with MLW since 2018 and signed a multi-year deal in May 2020.

Bauer said the two sides stay in regular touch and that Holliday’s recovery has gone well. He said he told Holliday that “a seat is warm for him” in MLW when, and if, he wants to return.

MLW & Reelz

On the future of MLW Underground and Reelz following the recent questions around its future, Bauer said it’s “business as usual” without giving any clear answer on the future of the partnership.

“A month and a half ago, a press release came out and put up a lot of question marks. It’s been business as usual. People try to connect dots and that’s always the way things have been in wrestling,” he said.

He said they will do a season finale on Reelz as they have done in the past on BeIn which he expects people to read into when it comes to their future with Reelz.

Live TV shows

Bauer said the company will do live televised events and it’s something they have been working on prior to the pandemic. He said they have received bids and should be announcing something this summer but didn’t specify whether that would be on Reelz, a different provider, or pay-per-view.

Real1 says he never agreed to MLW title match, wasn’t under contract

Posted on by Josh Nason

A day after it was reported that MLW had released Real1, the former Enzo Amore fired back at the company in a series of videos Saturday where he clarified his stance and took aim at some recent creative direction he was given.

Real1 said that he was never under contract to MLW and has always been a free agent working in good faith. He said he told MLW owner Court Bauer on his first day that he never wanted to wrestle for the company’s main title so it was “false advertising” when they recently announced a title match between he and Alexander Hammerstone for this upcoming weekend.

He said at the last MLW taping, he was given a stack of posters to sign with the match advertised and when he questioned it to Bauer, he said he was told that it was an oversight that slipped through the cracks and that Bauer was wearing too many hats. 

“You forgot, bro? I was born at night, but not last night,” he said.

While he thanked the staff and wrestlers and said he had a great time in his two years there, Real1 said it was “bad business” and a “low blow” on Bauer’s behalf that he put out a story during WrestleMania weekend about him being fired and “trying to squeeze out a headline.”

He also claimed Bauer gave him creative directions “to bury a guy who just beat cancer” which would be Richard Holliday who completed chemotherapy treatments in February. If true, it’s assumed that was a storyline/feud MLW wanted to go with at some point this year when Holliday returns.

“I do a lot of things on the microphone and I say a lot of sh*t, but that ain’t one of them. Sorry, cancer is a sensitive subject,” he said, later adding, “I didn’t want to bury a guy who just beat cancer. There was nothing left for me to do in MLW.”

MLW returns for two Northeast U.S. events this upcoming weekend.

MLW reportedly releases three wrestlers

Posted on by Ethan Renner

MLW has made three roster cuts, according to a report. 

PW Insider reports that the company has parted ways with Bu Ku Dao, Beastman and Leo Brien. MLW has yet to make an official comment on the releases. 

Bu Ku Dao is a nine-year veteran of the independent scene who joined MLW in 2020. He both teamed with and faced off against TJP during his time in the company. He also scored a pair of wins over El Hijo de LA Park. 

Beastman is a 14-year indie veteran, whose lone MLW appearance came at the Fightland tapings earlier this month. 

Brien is a nine-year veteran of the independent scene as well. He had been making sporadic MLW appearances since 2017. As a member of The Dirty Blondes team with Michael Patrick, he twice challenged for the MLW World Tag Team titles in 2021. 

The PWInsider report cites MLW CEO Court Bauer’s desire to run shorter TV tapings with less talent as a potential reason for the cuts. 

We’re Live Pal: Court Bauer joins to talk MLW Fightland

Posted on by Garrett Gonzales

It’s a brand new episode of We’re Live, Pal! Denise, Andrew and I are back with special guest, Court Bauer, CEO of MLW.

  • We talk to Court about MLW’s upcoming Fightland show on Vice. We also talk to him about the Opera Cup and catch up with him about all the recent things happening at MLW.
  • After Court leaves, we talk to Andrew about going to AEW Grand Slam live.
  • The three of us talk about Extreme Rules, and finally a little bit about Friday’s WWE Draft on SmackDown before giving our performers of the week.

Enjoy the latest We’re Live, Pal by clicking below or watching on YouTube.

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MLW announces new season, return of live fans

Posted on by Joseph Currier

For the first time since March 2020, MLW is returning to running shows in front of live fans.

MLW CEO Court Bauer made an appearance on this week’s MLW Fusion episode and announced that the promotion will be holding a television taping with fans in attendance at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Saturday, July 10. The event will mark the start of a new season for MLW.

Tickets to the event are now on sale. It’s advertised that MLW World Heavyweight Champion Jacob Fatu, Ross & Marshall Von Erich, Contra Unit, Tom Lawlor, National Openweight Champion Alexander Hammerstone, Richard Holliday, Calvin Tankman, Azteca Underground, Myron Reed, Gino Medina, Alicia Atout, and more will be appearing at the tapings.

Earlier this week, MLW announced a new weekly television deal with Vice TV. Archival MLW content will begin airing on Vice TV this May before the new season starts.

 Dave Meltzer wrote about MLW’s deal with Vice TV:

The deal is not exclusive as MLW will continue with both programming on BeIn Sports as well as planning for special live events on DAZN which haven’t started yet due to the pandemic. Library content will also remain on DAZN. The company is also in talks for a new streaming deal.

Vice TV has had great success with Dark Side of the Ring, the most popular show in the history of their network, but this will be the first time they have expanded to add a regular weekly pro wrestling show. Those shows will cross promote each other.

The current season of MLW will close out with Middleweight Champion Lio Rush defending his title against Myron Reed on Fusion on Wednesday, May 5.

Hammerstone & Bauer segments, TJP vs. Dao set for MLW Fusion

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Image: MLW

A few announcements have been made for next week’s episode of MLW Fusion.

Next Wednesday’s Fusion will feature a press conference by National Openweight Champion Alexander Hammerstone. In the main event of this week’s Fusion, Hammerstone defeated Mil Muertes to defend his title.

Hammerstone got on the microphone after defeating Muertes and said that was just step one. Hammerstone said things will be getting more interesting with step two. Hammerstone announced that he’ll be holding a press conference next week and will have some very Dynastic news. On commentary, it was speculated that Hammerstone could be going after MLW World Heavyweight Champion Jacob Fatu.

An appearance by MLW CEO Court Bauer is also set for next Wednesday’s Fusion. Plus, TJP vs. Bu Ku Dao will take place on the episode.

It was said on this week’s Fusion that Bauer has been busy with MLW’s partnership with Dragon Gate and MLW’s TV deal and will be in the house for next Wednesday’s show.

TJP turned against his protege Dao after they lost an MLW Tag Team title match to Los Parks this February. TJP vs. Dao was originally supposed to take place last month, but there was an angle where TJP was fined and suspended for attacking Dao backstage before the match could get started.

WOR: Court Bauer talks MLW Fusion Live and the pro wrestling landscape

Posted on by Garrett Gonzales

It’s Wrestling Observer Radio with Dave Meltzer and myself, guest co-host Garrett Gonzales.

We interview Court Bauer about his MLW Fusion Live special on December 14 at 8PM ET on beIN Sports. They talk about the card, Brian Pillman Jr. and his early career, Teddy Hart, adding Rush and Dragon Lee to the roster, and a move to a different night in the future.

The discussion turns to the current pro wrestling lanscape including talk about contract tampering, Lucha Underground, All Elite Wrestling, and WrestleMania weekend.

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Best of WOL: Piper Niven, Court Bauer, Dave Meltzer

Posted on by F4W Staff

With so much content on our site and others, we understand that it’s easy to miss some of the great interviews that Bryan Alvarez and Mike Sempervive do on Wrestling Observer Live, available Monday-Friday at 3 ET/12 PT and Sundays at 6 PM ET/PT on this here website, Sports Byline, SiriusXM, the Armed Forces Network, radio affiliates around the country, and more.

On the latest Best of WOL:

– We begin with an interview with Dave Meltzer from two weeks ago with further updates on the passing of Bruno Sammartino and the overshadowed passing of “No. 1” Paul Jones.

– We transition to a talk with Piper Niven, aka Viper. They discussed her career, working in Stardom, her transition to Japanese wrestling, her time in the Mae Young Classic and why she thinks WWE didn’t sign her, and more.

– We then flip back to Dave who talked to Bryan and Mike about the news of the week and the then-impending Greatest Royal Rumble.

– We round out with MLW heach honcho and podcasting maven Court Bauer who discussed the company’s new TV show, upcoming TV tapings, and general updates.

Enjoy the Best of WOL with friends, co-workers, enemies, and pets.

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JNPO: Court Bauer on MLW Radio, Combate Americas & WWE cruisers

Posted on by Josh Nason

On the 51st edition of Josh Nason’s Punch-Out, Josh is joined by friend of the site and budding combat sports media mogul Court Bauer!

***Note this is a free show. Listen and share often!***

Court & Josh talked for a packed 30 minutes on a variety of topics that included:

– The story behind the creation of MLW Radio and how talents like Ric Flair, Jim Cornette and more have come aboard

– The challenges in running a paid content audio site in today’s increasingly free media environment

– How Court got hooked up with Combate Americas and his surprise at what former UFC higher-up was a neighbor

– The wrestling and MMA connection that has developed with the promotion

– Court’s thoughts on the entire CM Punk/UFC package

– Thoughts on how WWE has done with Nakamura thus far

– The launch of the cruiserweights on WWE Raw

– Josh talks the top three fights for Saturday’s UFC Fox Sports One show and the weight issues surrounding Cyborg Justino

Get all that and more by clicking the button below:

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