Flashback Boom (5 Years Ago – 9-19-2018): Court Bauer on the growth of MLW, disputes Pentagon Jr. and Fenix to WWE rumors, more

Today we present the Pro Wrestling Boom podcast from five years ago this week (9-19-2018) with Jason Powell interviewing Court Bauer. The topics include the growth of Major League Wrestling, the differences between pro wrestlers today compared to past eras, Pentagon Jr. and Fenix to WWE rumors, the plan to hold MLW shows on Saturdays rather than Thursdays, the departures of MVP and James Storm from the company, and much more.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Well, welcome to Jason Powell's ProWrestling Boom podcast. Hey, production of
Pro Wrestling dot Net. Get readyfor the latest news, analysis and interviews
featuring big names from the world ofpro wrestling. Here comes the Boom.

(00:37):
Thank you. Paul Allen, voiceof the Missile of Vikings. A tie,
really a tie. I've been watchingthe Vikings since the late seventies,
and I think this is only thesecond tie that I've actually seen, and
I think the other one was alsoagainst the Packers at some point. I
guess the good news is that theVikings, well, they didn't lose their

(00:58):
stad but also they figured out thatgoing with a rookie kicker when the championship
aspirations isn't exactly a great move.I know, I know it worked for
the Eagles last year, but Isee that as being more of the exception
to the rule. Welcome to Minnesota, Dan Bailey, my god, after
Blair Walsh has melt down and Kipor Math's inability to kick an extra point

(01:19):
and now the mess that was DanielCarlson, you are a site for solar
eyes, my man. By theway, that the penalty on Clay Matthews
for the hit on Kirk Cousins absurd. So was the flag on Eric Kendricks
for his hit on Aaron Rodgers.You know, I promise I'll get to
pro wrestling in a minute, butyou got to indulge me for a second
on this. Who stood nelt orsat during the national anthem this week?

(01:44):
Yeah? I don't know either.I think the best way out of a
controversy is to have another controversy popup that people care more about. So
am I such a conspiracy theorist?And I believe the NFL would intentionally create
another controversy in order to distract peoplefrom the anthem controversy. Yeah, I
kind of am so. I knowthey want to keep their superstar quarterbacks healthy

(02:05):
at all, but you got toadmit this has really taking the anthem controversy
out of the news, at leastfor now until a certain somebody decides to
tweet about it again. Anyway,let's talk about pro wrestling. My guest
today is a returning guest. Ispoke to him back in April, and
a lot has happened with his companyin just five months time. Phase one
was really just a simple rollout ofa very simple operation with a budget that

(02:36):
we could operate in the black andbe self sufficient in a very modest way
in terms of support from the fans, and if that worked, you know,
you could escalate things. Major LeagueWrestling promoter Court Bauer returns and share
some interesting news about Pentagon and Phoenixthat surprised me. MLWR be in Sports,

(03:00):
their Spanish feed, plus the expansionof the company, the departures of
MVP and James Storm, and muchmore. Court's always a great guest,
and I think you're gonna find thisto be an interesting and informative conversation that
we had. Court is also apotty mouth, so there's a few f
bombs dropped, and please keep thatin mind if you're listening at work or

(03:22):
you have kids in the room.Just wanted to give your heads up on
that. The finish of WWE Hellin a Cell the main event kind of
turned me into a potty mouth fora moment. WWE put on a really
good show on Sunday Night until thatnon finish to a Hell and a Cell
match. Donet's Staff for Jake Barnettsummed that up perfectly and our members exclusive
audio review on Sunday Night when hesaid that we started the day with a

(03:44):
tie between the Packers and Vikings,and we end the night with a tie
between Roman Reigns and braun Strowman.Well, we know brock Lesner's back.
We didn't know he'd be at thisevent, but the fact that he's sticking
around WWE was not a surprise todot m members. In the dot net
Weekly Audio show that the word Iwas hearing was that both he and Paul
Hayman were actually already signed through WrestleMania, So I don't think this won't be

(04:08):
the last time you see Brock,despite the fact that he's probably going to
do some do a UFC fight atsome point as well with Daniel Cormier.
The angle at the end of theshow led to the announcement of Roman Reigns
against brock Lessner against bron stroman triplethreat at the WWE Crown Jewel event.
I think it's November second in SaudiArabia. Yes, another WWE pay per

(04:31):
view event. Here's the list Icompiled for Monday's raw audio review that went
up for members on everything that WWEhype during their three hour raw show.
Okay, they were coming out ofHelen a Cell. There was a lot
of talk about that ww E SuperShowdown, ww E Evolution, w w
E, Crown Jewel, SmackDown,the Mixed Match Challenge, two of Five

(04:54):
Live NXT, the May Young Classic, Total Divas, plus they had a
couple of different to charity plugs fortheir Connor's Cure work and the American Red
Cross, and I forgot to mentionon Monday that they worked in a plug
for the latest installment of the Marinefranchise too. This is insanity. I
know some of you guys can't getenough wrestling, and you love that WWE

(05:16):
is holding all of these events,and that's great, but they're just bombarding
viewers with so many damn plugs duringRaw it's really hard to keep up with
it all. And I know alot of us are taking pot shots at
WWE for running in Saudi Arabia againbecause of the politics. Putting that aside
for now, another frustrating aspect ofCrown Jewel is that I suspect it's going
to overshadow the All Women's Evolution eventsince they're going to be held less than

(05:41):
a week apart. I was reallylooking forward to seeing the women take center
stage on Rawn SmackDown, as thecompany built toward that show. Now I
fear it's a little more than amake good show featuring the women to kind
of counter the criticism of Saudi politicspreventing WWE's female talent from appearing at the
Crown Jewel event. And yeah,Becky Lynch and Charlotte were featured in the

(06:01):
closing segment on SmackDown this week.That's great, but I have to point
to the half ass job that WWEhas done in promoting the return of Trish
Stratus and Leda to the ring atthe Evolution show. So while you have
Undertaker Triple H and Shawn Michaels gettingextended promo time each week to promote what
they're doing at Super Showdown in Australia, the company just kind of flippantly announced

(06:23):
the in ring returns of two oftheir biggest female icons. And I'm not
saying they should be dedicating equal timeor anything like that, but it is
disappointing that they couldn't muster up morefanfare for the in ring returns of Trish
and Leda. And I really hopethey make me eat my words on this.
I really hope that they do agreat job. They do right by
the women heading into the Evolution show. I guess only time will tell,

(06:46):
and I'm sure we'll be talking moreabout that as we get closer to the
event. Hey, please remember showus some five star love on iTunes.
I ask you guys every week.Thank you to those who have done it.
It only takes a minute to findus on iTunes and then to rate
and view us there, and you'dbe doing me a huge favor if you
would take that minute out of yourday to do just that. You can
also subscribe to this podcast by searchingfor Pro Wrestling Boom on Apple Podcasts.

(07:11):
We're also available on stitch, yourdowncast and pretty much everywhere you listen to
your podcast as Please subscribe today andthat way you won't miss an episode.
You can also help support the siteby becoming a Pro Wrestling dot Net member.
It's the ad pre version of ProWrestling dot Net. So listen up
and then get ready for my latestinterview with MLW promoter Courtbauer coming up right

(07:32):
after this. If you enjoyed thePro Wrestling Boom podcast and Pro Wrestling audio
content, then I know you're gonnalove becoming a member of the adpre version
of Pro Wrestling dot Net. Themembers here the weekly Flagship dot Net weekly
audio show with Jake Barnett and Idiscussing all the news of the week and
sometimes including some first run news itemsthat have not been reported elsewhere. Members

(07:53):
also have access to a decade ofaudio content with interviews and exclusive audio reviews
of Raw SmackDown, NXT, Ringof Honor, Impact Wrestling, and the
list goes on. They also hearour audio reviews of all the major WWE
Ring of Honor and Impact Wrestling payper views, and NXT takeover specials.
Plus we're adding more new Japan ProWrestling audio content for their major shows.

(08:15):
Help support Pro Wrestling dot Net andthe Pro Wrestling Boom podcast by signing up
today at PW Membership dot Net.Back on the Boom. MLW Fusion airs
Friday, seventh, Central, eightEastern on b In Sports and debuts the
very next night on the MLW YouTubepage. My guest today is the man

(08:37):
behind it all, behind the wholeMLW Empire, Court Bauer. Welcome back
to the Boom. Hey, goodto be back on the Boom. How's
it been man, Yeah, thingshave been good. I think you were
Guest number two back in the day, which isn't all that long ago,
but still a lot has happened sincethen. You guys are returning to New
New York City at the Melrose Ballroomon October fourth, and now the announcement

(09:00):
comes out You're running Chicago, Illinoisat Cicero Stadium on November eighth. Court.
Not bad for a promotion that buildits return as One Shot. Yeah,
not bad for a league that startedmany years ago and O two and
then took a break and then restartedas a podcast in twenty eleven, and
then we created a podcast network,and then we did One Shot and within

(09:22):
a few months we had a nationalTV deal that's now blossoming into something a
bit bigger in scope. So yeah, we're really excited by Phase one,
two and soon three this roll out. It's hard to believe we're knocking on
twelve months since One Shot. Timereally flies when you're doing this around the

(09:43):
clock. But it's been a lotof fun. It's the labor of love
and I've never been happier. ButI'm my own boss, so that probably
is why. Absolutely looking back,be honest, when you did One Shot,
did you have additional plans before youeven did the show or was it
really, let's just do this forfun, because that's kind of how it
was presented. Well, yeah,it was very much. By the end

(10:05):
of the summer, we were trackingpretty damn good on tickets. The media's
support of us, along fan supportwas way higher than I thought. I
really thought this was going to besomething that would be barely a blip.
We'd do it, I would behumoring MSL Wallet and company, and I
could get them off my back andthen go back to the real world.

(10:28):
And that never happened. I'm stillin this crazy wrestling wonder land a year
and change later. But about afew weeks after one Shots when we started
to actually take meetings on a TVdeal, and that's when it got very
real to me that we got somethinghere, and between my connections and other

(10:50):
connections, we were able to veryquickly move and make something real happens.
It's hard to get on TV.I mean every promoter right now in the
game, it's hard. It's noteasy. And when you do get on
TV, to get a rights feeand have such a supportive network partner and

(11:11):
have a long term deal and allthe exclusivity and all the trimmings that come
with it. It was very lamentousfor us and also in a way just
a game changer. You went fromthis. We knew by December we were
closing a deal. It just takesa little bit of time. So for
the next few months we were justkind of fine tuning our operation and kind

(11:31):
of using the first few shows iskind of a way. It was like
our preseason. You know, you'retrying to run the place get I was
very rusty as a booker. Timeschange, what the audience wants changes,
and you kind of have to figureit out and what you want for your
roster when it went to TV.So that was kind of like our training
wheels period, our our pregame periodfor Fusion going to be in and it's

(11:56):
it's an operational thing, it's astaffing thing, it's a talent thing,
it's all that. And so bygo time when the show went, we
were we were pretty happy. Wehad a nice runway to get things up
and running. How did that dealcome to me? I mean, did
you pursue be in sports? Didthey reach out to you? I had
worked with Bien actually when I waswith Kombat America's we had done a deal

(12:20):
maybe eighteen months prior to MLW stealand it was just it was actually for
a show that was going to bean MMA event in Japan with one of
the Kombati America's fighters on it,and they were gonna beam it back to
the States and we were gonna dolive commentary and air it on Bien.

(12:41):
Something along the way. Above mypay grade at Kombat fell apart. We
didn't do the deal, but Ihad a good relationship with Bien and kept
that relationship as everyone should in thebusiness. You never know when you're gonna
have an opportunity. You want asmany contacts as you can to shop or
too, and it worked pretty goodfor us. They're they've been very receptive

(13:03):
and very excited about the product,and that's so big. I mean,
you look at wrestling history. Ifyou have a supportive network, it makes
or breaks you. If you don'thave one and they're half ass in with
you, you get half ass results. Well, they are going through some
growing pains, it would seem withI think there's a couple of major disputes
they're having over the carry hbs andall that sort of a thing. How

(13:26):
different, how tough has that madeit for you guys. I mean,
obviously you have the YouTube page,but just about the time you guys got
rolling, it seemed like some ofthese issues flared up for them. Yeah.
What happened there was they rolled outall of their contracts when they launched
this network six eight years ago,and they signed all their deals almost simultaneously,
So whether it was Comcast, RECTV, Verizon, FiOS, Spectrum,

(13:50):
whatever your carrier was, when theywent live, they sign all those deals
and they basically expired around the sametime. Everyone re upped, except for
two companies that ended up going alittle bit further and complicated things and negotiations,
which was Comcast and Direct TV.Direct TV I do anticipate will be
resolved fairly quickly. You don't know. With comcasts, It's well documented Ben's

(14:15):
had issues with Comcasts. I don'tknow what the outcome is going to be.
But as a Yankee fan, Ican tell you when things went weird
with Comcasts and the Yes Network wherethe Yankees are on, they were off
Comcasts for a year. So wow, I don't know how it's impacted us.
It's really forced us to really focuson our digital play and grow our
our audience from from digital to offsetwhat we are not getting. And honestly,

(14:41):
if you have a good product,people find it and it sounds kind
of like you're you're you're being optimistic, but at the same time, that's
what happened. Most of my tweetsare like, hey man, I used
to watch on Direct TV or Comcast, so glad I get it now on
YouTube. And what we do forYouTube is we actually cook in exclusive content,
so even if you watch it onBIEN, you can watch it and
get even more out of it onYouTube as well. Plus it's commercial free

(15:05):
that doesn't hurt. So those kindof things that we've also aired some stuff
that didn't pass sensors when we whenwe aired it on BN including an angle
with Joey Chanelle and mjf involving acondom. Go to YouTube dot com slash
Major League Wrestling to see what that'sall about, Judge Free Zone. But
those kind of things. We justtry to make it more fun on the

(15:28):
YouTube channel where you can do alittle bit more than you can on the
cable version. But you know,even with losing Direct TV and Comcast,
as temporary as it might be,uh, you know, that's their whole
audience size between their English and Spanishnetworks combined is about fifty five million,

(15:48):
and in fact we'll break it onthis podcast. We're going to be starting
on their Spanish channel, B andN Espanol next Tuesday night and every Tuesday
night after with an MLW fusion inEspanol, and that will double our audience
as well, so we'll be ina bit more homes and with all of
our great Latin talent, a lotof great lucadors, I think that we'll

(16:11):
really see a nice growth from that. When you look at there being an
Espaniol channel, they have great offeringsfrom boxing down to soccer, so with
a lot of the luchars being thefocus of the promotion and I think that
will give us a nice little boostin our audience. Oh very nice.
And will you have a Spanish broadcastteam then? How is that work?

(16:32):
Yes? We will, Yes,we will have a Spanish broadcast team,
and we've already had guys like Conanand Penta and Phoenix, La Park,
Selena, low Key, etcetera,etcetera do promos and interviews for B and
N Espanol. They're going to beappearing on BNS in Espanol programming next week
to promote it. I'm very supportiveof us, so that's been great,

(16:56):
that's been very helpful for us.So we'll so it's the same show,
just a simulcast essentially in Spanish,and what air is on Friday and English
will air on Tuesdays in Spanish,and so it's just it's it's great for
us. Now we have a Spanishversion of the product that we can then
shop to Central and South America too. Sure. Yeah, So by the

(17:17):
end of the year, the companywill have run events in Orlando, New
York, Chicago, and Port Lauderdalely, don't think I'm missing any Is the
plan for Guilt Nightclub to be homebase or do you kind of hope to
settle into more of a rocation.Yeah, well we right now, we
haven't come. We haven't gone backto Guilt since July. We're working out
some scheduling conflicts and we still wantto get back to there. We're working

(17:38):
on returning to Orlando, but it'sup in the air, you know.
It's it's really kind of figuring outthe scheduling of it all when we run
versus what they have free. Sothat's the big question. Marked But now
we're on national TV. Now wehave we have market research that tells us
where our audience is really strong onTV also digitally, and so we're gonna

(18:00):
be hitting those markets. So weknow we have great market research to kind
of support where what markets should youshould be hitting and so you know,
you want to be very selective andmake very calculated decisions. And so you
know, you go to Chicago,it makes sense. South Florida made sense.
Some of the other markets we're gonnabe opening up soon will make sense.
It's not like, you know,well, we know wrestling is always

(18:22):
hot in this talent. Let's giveit a whirl and then it's it's you're
rolling the dice. You know,we really want to use our data to
our benefit. You should now withmoving out of Orlando. From time to
time, I know you guys forthe New York Show, brought in Matt
Stryker to be color commentator. Hekind of I don't know if he replaced
or just builled in because I knowRich Bocchini has done things with you guys

(18:44):
since then. Where does so whatis the broadcast team does? It kind
of very based on the market.With Tony always on play by play.
Tony is a lock for all ofour shows in case, you know,
something comes up where you know,be sick or whatever. But yeah,
we have we have to grow ourbench. We're going to be offering more
and more content both domestically and abroad. So the deep our bench, the

(19:06):
better, and so that's why webrought on Striker. But Rich called the
action with Tony in South Florida lastor two weeks ago, and he's probably
going to be slotted for our showin two weeks in New York City October
fourth at Melrose Ballroom. Okay,and you mentioned we're approaching the one year

(19:26):
anniversary of that one shot event.I think it's the day before the day
after when you guys will be backin gosh in New York. So you've
been working on the wrestling side ofMLW now for over a year and you
mentioned you know you were you didthis way back in the day, and
obviously you had a stint as aWW creative team member. You've kind of

(19:48):
been in and around the business insome way, so it's not like you
just disappeared and came back. Butstill compared to going back in the day,
compared to now, what's been themost surprising part of return as a
promoter. Well, it's a fewthings. I mean, the talent today
just has such a great attitude.They don't come with a lot of the

(20:10):
baggage from like the old everywhere.There's so much you can romanticize about in
the nineties, the eighties, two, early two thousands, about the talent,
the angles, the stories, thebusiness as a whole. But a
lot of those guys were super difficultto deal with. They didn't want to
get beat, They had really badaddiction issues, they had a lot of

(20:30):
problems. It was really hard todeal with those guys, especially when I
was like twenty two, twenty three. It's like, oh my god,
today these I don't know if it'sa byproduct of a lot. I would
say most of the guys in thebusiness, the guys and the girls in
the business today, and they grewup as huge fans. They just stumble
into it and they were a bounceror something and to make a few bucks.

(20:52):
But they were diehard fans since theywere kids. And I think for
them, I think they saw alot of their heroes die. They saw
a lot of tragedies unfold, andI think there's a lot of cautionary tales
because today, really if people rolltheir eyes, oh they really go back
to the rooms and play Nintendo Switch. Yeah, they kind of do,
right, and they kind of evendo it backstage or like guys like ah
at an after party sitting there,you know, watching Dragon ball Z.

(21:15):
You know. So it's like,yeah, that's for real, and that's
cool and I like that. Andso they're so much easier to deal with.
Their athleticism is incredible. Those kindof things are great. That's a
pleasant surprise. The difference today asa promoter, as a booker is that
you know the audience, it's alot more challenging to manipulate them. And

(21:37):
that sounds like a dirty word,but that's the art of booking, is
to be a step ahead and bringthe fans along for the journey. But
it's a little harder because the fanstoday are so much more sophisticated, are
so much more dialed into the insand out of the business, not just
the news of the business, butthe nuances of the business. I mean,
there are so many fans have tweetedme and tipped me off to allent

(22:00):
I mean, it's such a differentgame, and it's such a smarter game
for the folks watching in the crowdthan it was fifteen twenty years ago,
where they're just watching a hot angleand booing and popping for it. They're
so much more engaged. It's like, I don't know, if it's like
kind of like fantasy sports or esports where they're like looking at all the
stats and they're kind of measuring itup and watching the game in real time.

(22:21):
It's maybe something like that. Butthey are such a different breed than
they were back in the day,and so when you do get one that
they really react to in a differentsense and it's a very euphoric pop,
Oh my god, that to meis like, wow, now I really
feel like we earned that one.So you know, they're but they know
what they want. And as apromoter as a booker, that's kind of

(22:42):
easy because you now have access tothem on social media and so when they
love something, they tell you ifthey think it's trash, they will tell
you, which that you know,it might hurt my feelings for a second,
but at the same time it reallyhelps me kind of understand where they're
coming from because they're being honest.They want a good product and you get
a one on one interaction with himwhen you fire up Twitter or you're on

(23:03):
Instagram and Facebook, so that Ireally like. It's totally different, but
it really is healthful. You canmake adjustments easier and you don't want to
panic. You hear you get onetweet from someone in there they really hate
something or they love something, youjust go all with it. But it's
great to have that kind of insight, and so that's very helpful. Those
kind of things are different. Andbeing able to just put your product out

(23:26):
there in different ways through social media, through YouTube, it's it's very helpful
to find talent behind the scenes usingsocial media so much help been so much
more helpful for us. I foundmy editor from my weekly TV show through
Twitter, I mean for real,and now he has a regular gig doing
it and he does a great job. That kind of stuff. Like just

(23:47):
years ago, you didn't have thatkind of option. It's a different game.
Things happen so much faster now thanever, and being able to promote
is so much easier now because ofgeo targeted Facebook plays or just access to
the media. The media today,whether it's ESPN Radio, who has been

(24:07):
very supportive of US or other outlets. Is incredible compared to what it was
back in the day. They wouldnever touch it back in the day,
and it's great. So it's it'sa different world. I mean, WW
benefits from it. When you lookat Rolling Stone, you look at ESPN
Sports Center and there's you know,there's pluses and miaces to that too.
But it's great that that wrestling isgetting that kind of coverage. It's it's

(24:29):
unprecedented in the United States. InJapan they had some of that back in
the day, but in the USnot so much. Grol wrestling dot Net
is the place to go for newsand analysis, live television and major event
reviews, opinion pieces, and somuch more. If you want to keep

(24:52):
up on the very latest and professionalwrestling, then search No Burger, then
girl Wrestling dot Net. When itcomes to booking, because of this,
you know, the more sophisticated fanbase just the Internet in general. Do
you book for that audience? Doyou think I've got to keep this more

(25:14):
basic because I'm trying to attract morecasual viewers. What's your mindset on that?
No, I want to I meanI look at the general viewer it's
like, what do they want?You know, we have a TV product
and you want to make sure thatit's broad enough that's viable. But great
talent is great talent. So youknow, if you position great talent to

(25:36):
be at their very best, youshould be okay. And my job is
pretty easy. I mean, Ireally have great talent. So you know,
where are the tag team titles going? Penta Phoenix. I mean,
it's pretty obvious to me. Thosethose guys are amazing. They're going with
it. MJF phenomenal, phenomenal starin the making. So when we're developing

(25:57):
our middleweight championship, it was justa good talent makes it obvious, you
know, and the talent connects withthe audience that makes it obvious. And
then you always have your projects,you know, your working process or working
project, so you know, thosekind of guys are important. Uh not
everyone's that I hit it out ofthe park, but the fans also know

(26:18):
that and they're patient for the mostpart with that. So over the last
year you mentioned projects, I mean, is there a wrestler that maybe you
brought in you didn't have any majorcreative plan for and things just clicked and
that person became a regular part ofthe company, or has it all kind
of gone according to plan. Nothing'sever going to go right according to the

(26:41):
plan, all right, that's nevergonna be Like there are guys that I
thought, you know, I wouldanoint that's going to be an ad that
guy is gonna be like the nextlevel, and it just whatever reason.
Sometimes talent plateau. Sometimes talent justputters out or they just whiff, and
sometimes that's on us too creatively,I maybe I strike out. You just

(27:03):
don't know. I would say Iwas very I was very happy. I'm
very proud of Teddy Hart, Likehe was someone that we brought in and
I was like, I was justlike, I want to I want to
I want to play, I wannalive a little dangerously. Let me bring
in my whole friend Teddy. Everyone'slike, are you fucking out of your
mind? It's like, yeah,probably, and it's it's been. It's

(27:23):
been great. And Teddy, Brianand Davy Boy have crushed it for us,
and and Brian's very very new tothe business, great instincts, great
wrestling IQ. But already in termsof an act, the Heart Foundation is
run away with it. They're superover one of the most over acts.
You know, I'm putting them incompany with Penta and Phoenix uh As,

(27:48):
you know, top baby face actsin our company. They're super over and
they're i mean, they've hit,they've broken all the records for our T
shirts, the Heart Foundation shirts justare They're just smoking every anything else.
So I'm really happy with those guys. Guy like Codo Brazil comes to mind
when you think about a guy thatwas like essentially a walk on. He

(28:10):
was a guy like we had alot of guys turned down doing jobs.
They wanted to be showcased and wantedto have these big, competitive, wild
matches, and I'm like, listen, that's just not what we're doing.
Some of these matches. We're doingthrowback get over matches, and guys turned
it down. I was like,all right, you don't want to be
on TV. Cool, that's allright. I'm working this angle in this
podunk town next month. I can'tbe doing two minutes squashes like cool,

(28:33):
all right. I mean Taker didsquashes for Brody and Steve Austin did squashes
in Dallas and that didn't really hurttheir careers, but okay, cool,
all right, who's next? Andyoung Codo Brazils just said, yeah,
man, I'm good. I justwanted an opportunity, and I looked at
him in the eyes. I said, I won't forget this, and your
talent will show and I'll make thisup to you. So you put in

(28:56):
a good effort, I'll match thatand then some and man, he never
has let me down. I amso proud of that guy. He is
is one of the like in termsof guys I've signed. It's like,
I was so happy to sign himbecause first of all, think acknowledgement of
what he's contributed to our league,but also just a great get. You
know, a lot of heart,a lot of talent, and we gave

(29:18):
him the mic and you didn't knowyou were gonna. I didn't know how
he was gonna, how he's gonnado out there, and he knocked out
of the park with an Angelo SammyCallahan. So I'm very I'm very proud
of Kodo. He's come a longway, and you know, it's harder
for Southeastern talent to break out.There's a lot of distance between them and
a lot of the hotter companies ona regional level. So when those kind
of guys get that opportunity. It'sI know, they make the most of

(29:41):
it and guys like Code of Hereally has done a great job. Trained
by Jay Lethal, I believe,smaller guy, but a really quick,
dynamic wrestler. I can't recommend checkinghim out enough. He really especially Sammy
Callahan match I was that was thatmatch of the Rich Swan match. Really
it was his breakout moment for usand just a really fun personality too.

(30:03):
I really have enjoyed watching him andthat's a cool story. So even with
you mentioned kind of the improved professionalismof this generation, you still encounter guys
who don't want to do jobs.Yeah, I mean they there's they're just
local guys and you say, hey, man, I want to bring you
in just getting over this guy.Here's what it is, very straight up

(30:25):
about it. And I think ifyou're in wrestling, part of it too
is like you have to have anego, but you also have to be
a businessman. And there are guysthat you know, well maybe they just
don't they didn't have the faith andthenn't want to trust the process, or
they just were marking out for whateverthey had in that town and they think
that's a bigger opportunity, so beit. Maybe they're right, but you

(30:49):
know, for us, it's allabout you know, a bigger a bigger
vision. And I always think,listen, if you have an opportunity on
TV that's exposure to millions and millionsof people, why don't you want it?
But some people also are just they'redrinking a kool aid and they're going
to enjoy the flavor of that koolaid forever as forever long they want.

(31:10):
I don't really. I always tryto just give them a rational perspective and
if they don't buy in, I'mnot going to force them to, like,
you know, try to trick theminto it. It makes no sense
to me. Then they're going tohalf ask the effort. I don't.
I want a guy that's going tobe bumping around that ring and really selling
and making it memorable. Uh,that to me means a lot. We
had two kids do that recently inOrlando and that and I brought them back

(31:33):
and South far. They did agreat job. They had no problem putting
anyone over and being very entertaining doingAnd that's that's what it's about. It.
It's it's work, right news flash. HiT's a work with today's generation.
I mean, they do seem andI'm totally generalizing here, but they

(31:55):
seem were laid back. You knowyou mentioned to play in the video game
stuff like that. Is Are theyas engaged from a creative standpoint? Do
they want input on their creative orare they more they just take what they're
given. I encourage them and Ikind of engage them so they don't have
another option I want. I usuallywill kind of telling me this is where
we're going. What do you think, Well, if you don't like it,

(32:17):
what about this? And I'll evenget I'll kind of tease them if
if I'm not getting if I'm gettinga non committal answer. So if they're
like whatever, I'm going to pushthem to have a feeling a reaction to
it. I want them to beengaged, and if they're not, you
know, I'm gonna call them outon it. Most of our guys,
you know, they're they're very passionate. They really I'm saying, I'll tell

(32:38):
listen, this is where we're going. I'm gonna see you in three to
four weeks. Give me something goodfor that, and and they bring it.
You know. The weird thing istoo, it's we have a real
professional system. So they might bedoing indie shots and indie wrestling is great,
but also they're getting sometimes feedback that'squestionable because they're getting from people that

(33:04):
aren't probably they don't have an experience, or they don't have what I think
necessarily is a high wrestling IQ,and that's the problem you have this wrestling
boom. But also if you're doinglike twenty dates or eighteen fifteen, fourteen
dates a month, whatever the hellit is, ten days, four dates,
you're getting all these opinions. Nowit's up to you to filter the

(33:24):
good with the bad. So sometimeswe'll come back three or four weeks later
and you'll get a talent that getssome really funky advice and you have to
kind of like break those bad habitsand that bad advice and explain it to
them. And they're open to it. They want to, they want to,
they want to improve. But youknow, that's why I'm glad I
have the team I have. Youknow, behind the scenes, we have

(33:45):
great agents. We have Bruce Richardwho who also runs our Gorilla. I'm
in the truck most of the time, and in the truck, I'm like
central nervousism I can talk to everyone, everyone everywhere, but Bruce is the
guy right before they go out theremaking sure everything's good to go. And
he's helping me with making that thinga smooth sailing machine. But also we

(34:08):
have Conan who's now a senior agentwith US, Sammy Callahan and serves as
an agent for US. Low Keyserves as an agent for US. So
we have guys that have been prettymuch everywhere drawn money or help someone draw
money, and can help the youngguys. And if you're getting feedback from

(34:29):
them, it's pretty credible feedback.And it's not political at all. We
just want the best for the team, want the best for the talent.
When it comes to the guys,who you encourage them to give creative input?
Who excels at that? Who's justsomebody that maybe gave you an idea
that, Wow, that was reallygood. I hadn't thought of that.

(34:49):
Callahan's very good, really good ideas. Brian Pillman Jr. Has excellent ideas
for a young kid. He hascrazy good ideas. It's he's a very
quick learner. He has taken towrestling like a fish to water. It's
amazing. I can't give him enoughpraise. He really He'll suggest stuff and

(35:12):
I'm like yep, He's like really. I was like, nap, that's
good. Make my job easier,thank you. So yeah, those are
the two that really come to mind, that will pop off a real good
idea. A guy like MJF hassome You give him something, he'll he'll
he'll really have fun with it andspice it up. Jason Kade is another
guy, great talent that a lotof people are sleeping on. He does

(35:36):
a great job of come both ideas. Yeah, those are those are the
guys that instantly come to mind.Hey, gang, It takes a lot
of time and effort to produce ashow like this, and one way you
can support Pro Wrestling dot Net isby becoming a member at PW Membership dot
net. However, there's also aneasy and freeway to do so think of

(36:00):
us when you shop at Amazon.By simply starting your Amazon shopping at Pro
Wrestling dot Net slash Amazon, you'renot charging any extra, but we receive
a small and very helpful commission onwhat you purchased. A big thanks to
everyone who has helped out so far. Remember that's Pro Wrestling dot Net slash
Amazon has anyone pulled a hardcore Hollyand just said, yeah, put the

(36:24):
title on me. No, butthat would be funny. I did want
Bob Holly and Space Monkey for theBattle of Riot. Oh my god,
I would have died, I swear, I swear no. We looked into
the wrestler Space Monkey, who wasavailable and was willing to come in via
probably a spaceship. But Bob wasbooked on a Thursday night in July.

(36:45):
I was going to have them bepart of the Battle Riot, and of
course the Space Monkey was going toeliminate him. But maybe we'll do that
next year. Oh, I hope. So last time I had to talk
about booking just for the promoter Jesus. Oh no, it would be for
me and some others to believe me. Ones ended up making the rounds now.
I think a lot of people onlinewould appreciate it, even if they
were like left just completely baffled.I think there'd be enough outlets explaining it

(37:08):
that they would they would totally getit quickly. I would listen it would
it would have popped the truck ifwe ever had it. I could see
it happening one day. Maybe younever know. Bob probably is like,
what the hell is this? Idon't get the joke, but that's okay.
Let's, you know, like,just for the sake of those listening
who are going, well, whatthe hell are you guys talking about,
let's smarten them up to this courtso that when you do it they'll be

(37:29):
in on the joke. Hell peopleabout this point. So we're just having
a really really long day getting readyfor the ECW premiere, the new ECW,
the ww ECW on sci Fi,and there was a mandate that it
had to have some sort of scifi element to the premiere, and there

(37:49):
was a lot of ideas being bouncedaround, and as the day went on,
you get a little loopy and theideas get a little stranger. There
was Moista, the Mark Martian thatwas gonna be a Jewish Martian that was
going to his uncle. It wasa Vince idea, and uh, it

(38:12):
was just gonna he was just gonnaland his spaceship by the entrance and come
out. And then Paul's twist onit was that then the salmon was gonna
come out and just beat the shitout of him with a Singapore cane and
then sparked, this is ECW andyou'd go to your open I'd say,
PAULI kind of way of saying fuckyou to the network once in a while
would do U and then you know, we're just taking a break. And

(38:34):
I was like, yeah, whatif he was constantly had a mandate also
to come up with ideas from BobHolly? And I was like, all
right, what if we just hada spaceship crash and that looked really shitty
and cheap, like out of anEdwood movie, And it was like a
luminum foil and Bob Holly got outwith a space monkey attacking him, and
we just started laughing at how ridiculousit was. Never actually pitched. It
was just like you just trying tojust lighten up the room after a long

(38:58):
day at the office, and westarted laughing just We had a friend do
the mock up art for us,which you know, was like basically in
memory of flight forty one hundred,and it's like a painting of the monkey
and Bob Holly implying that the flightdid not end well. But I just
thought it was the funniest thing tothink of WW and NASA collaborating on a

(39:19):
project for pr purposes. And againyou're getting the loop here as the day
goes on with these ideas. Ultimatelythe end result was the ECW zombie coming
out, and that was what weended up landing on, which you know
it was what it was well done, sir, Yeah, that one was
interesting. But I forever became ajoke in the writer's room when I was

(39:40):
there that Bob Holly and the spaceMonkey, if we ever need a tag
team just calling them, Imagine howdifferent things might have been had you gone
with that instead of the damn zombie. Well, it's funny. There's definitely
those phases where Vince goes through whereit's like I don't want any managers,
or I want all the managers,or he goes through the the animal phase

(40:00):
with the birds, the bulldogs orwhat everything else. If we had hit
the right phase where he was intohis animal fetish. Who knows that sounds
really weird, but he's just talkingabout that anti manager phase in audio because
all of a sudden, you know, Leo Rush is out there and I
asked him what he is and hesays he's a manager. But fell over
him like, wait, he's nota mouthpiece or an advocate. I mean,

(40:22):
he had he had to dance aroundthat with Vince for a while,
didn't you. Yeah, I meanlike he just has his pet peeves.
It's not a hospital, it's amedical facility. And we actually even play
it off with that on an MLWepisode. It's like Tony Sez he's getting
looked at the Orlando Medical Facility inthe nearby medical facility. Yeah, Vince
doesn't like hospitals. He doesn't likecertain markets, so he rebrands them and

(40:46):
so it's weird, but that's healways will have to go through phases and
then he'll act like the prior phasedid not exist. What are you talking
about? Of course I love managers. I've never not loved managers. It's
ridiculous. No one just pitches methem. Oh my god. Like that's
just that's one of those things.And he's going to go through a lot
of different likes and dislikes, andmaybe maybe taking a break from managers will

(41:07):
make them pop more after a longhiatus. But there's so much talent that
would have benefited from maybe that opportunity, and so were the audience. You
know, there was when I wasthere, there was a few managers,
but not a lot. You hadArmando Estrada and a few others, but
it was it was certainly not somethinghe was eager to bring into the equation.

(41:31):
A lot of was looked at atthe time for purely economical reasons.
It's another guy on the road.Is he really making much money? Who's
really buying a ticket to see themanager? My counter to that was,
yeah, but what the talent comesand goes. But if you have a
solid manager, then the bayface isfighting that cause you can feed him a
million heels, but he still hasn'tgotten to the manager. But whether it

(41:53):
was Bobby Heenan with Hulk or youhave Paulie with all the guys today that
you fight the cost. It's it'slike a video game, just you're just
getting to that end of the levelconstantly and keep doing it. Well,
money's not a problem for him now. So he can have lots of managers
if he would like to. Yes, But with them, I mean,

(42:15):
one of the stories of the week, it's just how many shows they are
cramming into their schedule. I meanjust not just television, I mean there's
a ton there when also all thesepay per view events and everything else that
they're doing, as as at yourlevel. Does that affect you in some
way it is too much WWE abad thing for you, or maybe in

(42:35):
a weird way, a good thing. I think fans now more than ever
are very selective and within two clickscan watch whatever they want, wherever they
want. And so it's it's it'sto me about quality over quantity. But
once you get those sweetheart deals,it's it's all about quantity and quality a
second to quantity. So it's it'sit's it's where you're positioned and what the

(43:01):
way your business is set up.Vince right now is the Walmart of wrestling.
He he has a million different thingsyou can you can check out in
his under his umbrella. What's therethat you like? You know? And
and for me, I'm looking forMLW to be more like a women may

(43:21):
not offer a million things, butwe're going to give you that quality thing.
So you know, if they're belike Netflix is kind of the Walmart
of content right now, and thenHBO is kind of like their version of
Tiffany, maybe we were trying tobe more on the HBO side of the
spectrum than Walmart because that's we gotto go with what we can and you

(43:42):
know, for us, it's moreshorter bursts of content, and instead of
asking you to pay pay pay,we're trying to be a disruptor. We're
saying it's all free. No,you don't have to go to iTunes and
pay two ninety ninety and every episode. You don't have to do this.
We're trying to eliminate as many paywallsand give you as much free content as
we can. We have that luxuryunlike a lot of companies because of our

(44:05):
really good deal with BN. Ifwe weren't with BN, it would probably
be a different business model that wehave that And so you're playing to our
strengths, which that's what you tryingto do. Do you see yourself at
some point moving into the pay perview game, or maybe even the streaming
game. I could see something likethat, you know, it just depends
on the scenario. You know,for streaming, you want you want to

(44:28):
be in bed with the right people, because if you're not, it's a
ship show. For pay per view, you had to be the right attraction
at the right moment. I mean, we used production trucks. It wouldn't
really you know, the cost isis a non factor, but at the
same time, the moment has tobe right. And you know, I've
set the table in the past forcompanies to do well and then I had

(44:52):
them. Some companies do very wellon pay per view live and others that
have fumbled with it. You know, Triple A U, they they couldn't
handle the capacity to do a livepay per view at that moment in time.
Maybe today it's a different story,but then they couldn't. For us,
I would really want to be carefuland make that a big build that

(45:16):
goes into something monumental. And Idon't know right now if I see that
as phase three, I don't probably. And you know, again, pay
per view is very viable now,but you have to have something that people
care about for them to buy it. They'll buy it. We see that
all the time with Boxing, MMAand all in Actually, so it's just

(45:37):
you have to build something big,and so you have to have enough time
to do that and everything has toconverge. Right now, I'm just still
building the setup for something like that. Yeah, you've referenced the phases a
couple of times. So what yousaid you're approaching phased to read? What
was phase one? What was phasetwo? Phase one was really just a

(45:58):
simple roll out of a very simpleoperation with a budget that we could operate
in the black and and be selfsufficient in a very modest way in terms
of support from the fans. UHand if that worked, you know,

(46:20):
you could escalate things. UH inPhase two was basically the bn era and
then pivoting and being an operation thatdoes weekly TV. UH starts to roll
out more into more markets. UHstarts up It's it's it's UH. Other

(46:42):
revenue streams such as merchandise really gohard with that, starts up the digital
end, and you know, you'rejust starting to grow more tentacles. But
also being realistic about it. Ifyou're over the ambitious, you're going to
trip, fall, stumble, fumbleeverything. It's going to be really bad
and it's hard to kick out ofthat once you've done that. So it's
really we're trying to be very disciplinedwith each stage. So we don't you

(47:05):
know, we don't run before wecan walk, and we don't that way
we don't trip. And it's reallyimportant because you've got to be cautious.
You know, your your your firstimpression is a lasting impression at every level
on the national stage, on aglobal stage, on a local stage,
and it's not as easy as saying, here's our game plan, go execute.

(47:28):
It's it's very very uh daunting togo through every stage. And that's
why I'm so glad the team Ido, because they help ensure that we're
going to have a decent shot ofsuccess. Young people involved, experience people
involved, It really does help.But you have to be very careful with
every level of this, and we'revery thorough when we go through our plans

(47:50):
to make sure everything is airtight.And even like rolling out a new market,
we put a lot of time intothat. We don't just say all
right, we're going to spontaneously hitChicago now. You know, we really
examine every aspect of it from asponsorship point of view, TV logistics point
of view, local promoting point ofview, all the all the stuff that

(48:12):
goes into operations. We really studyit very carefully. What can you tell
me about Phase three? I can'tsay anything right now. I'll be able
to say more as it rolls out, but right now I'm just you know,
we're gonna the first part of Stagethree is or Phase three is to
enter more markets, and Chicago isone of them. International TV's gonna be
part of Phase three and that's goingto be a big part of it.

(48:37):
Now it's been said that you intendto run more on Saturday nights in the
future. Is that true. Yes, Originally that was really phase one,
you know, just you want toget you We wanted the nightclub. When
we wanted it, it was harderto book the nightclub on the weekends because
it's a nightclub. I had areally good deal with the nightclub. And

(48:58):
when you are promotion in its infancy, you want the best talent, but
it's hard to get them because thatyou're new. You're a new kid on
the block. Even if you haveexperience, even if you have relationships,
you're just still the new kid onthe block. Then moving forward, now
we're looking at shows on Saturdays becauseprobably we have talent under contract, we
have loyal talent. Now we havea reputation. Now you sell more tickets

(49:21):
on a Saturday night. The fanshave asked us to go to Saturday nights.
For us, it's a lot thatthe product will be a lot fresher
from a Thursday to the following Friday. So instead from a Saturday to a
Friday, there's no reason not tou's it's it's it's a logical move for
us. Now. I know yousaid you have some talent under contract,

(49:44):
but do you expect to lose sometalent or even be put in a position
where you might have to pay alittle more because it's a Saturday night.
Not one talent. We've checked withall of our talent and not one has
said any issue. They're all excited, so yeah, we you know,
it's it's It would be a weirdthing for talent to say, sorry,

(50:06):
I rather work in an independent showin the middle of X town, X,
Y, or Z and not beon national TV and working great talent
and getting paid. We don't.We're we certainly, uh, we're certainly
I think on par with what peoplepay elsewhere. So you know, we
don't see any We haven't had anypushback from talent. They're all we you

(50:28):
know, when we rolled this out, We have our schedule. Everyone's been
aware of it for a long time, and everyone seems to be good.
I wouldn't think again, you knowwhy would Exposure is so important to wrestlers
because then they get more bookings.Being on TV is very helpful. Being
in a professional company that pays.Well, that's helpful. You know,

(50:49):
look at Pentagon and Phoenix. Uhwe we recently revealed, actually I revealed
on Twitter this morning that they're withus through the end of twenty nineteen.
We have all of our dates.Everyone's good to go on MLW's dates.
Most have been made aware of allthe dates. So I'm very happy to
have them, those two guys,very talented guys, staying with us for

(51:10):
the foreseeable future. Okay, whathappened there, I mean, I'm happy
for you guys, But every allthe buzz was they were WWE bound.
What happened, well, there wasthey had do circumstances beyond our control.
They weren't able to make our Octobershow, and so everyone's like, oh,
that must be a sign of something'sup. We didn't say anything.

(51:31):
Then I think it was Penta wasin a mask match at Triplemania, and
people like, oh, if heloses, maybe he's going to WWE.
And then we did a tweet beforethe day of our War Memorial show in
South Florida, right and say,you know, it's a big moment on
the horizon for Pentagon and Phoenix.What's next? And I told our social

(51:54):
media team spell next NXT let peoplestart speculating, and it was just for
an angle who were doing that nightwhere Selena was going to come out.
I want to ruin it for peoplethat are going to watch husion. But
there's a proposal made and something happensand they let everyone know where they stand.
But it was just that that tweet, I guess trolled a lot of

(52:17):
people and they thought, oh mygod, that's a sign they're going to
NXT. And even after we didthe angle that night, that playing into
it. I still think I'm gettingtweets or I see stuff reported about speculation
about them going to NXT. UhNo, they're they're that's that's not going
to happen for right now. Imean WW, certainly, I think if
they could get them, they wouldwant them right now. Ww's just taking

(52:42):
anyone both in the ring and ina creative space in wrestling and trying to
get them in a very aggressive manner. And then, like you said,
they have the money to make thathappen. Does the Luca Underground deal have
anything to do with Pentagonic being ableto stick around through twenty nineteen? I

(53:02):
can't come and I just went inmy discussions with them, that never came
up. Okay, one of thethings I've been really impressed by is the
way you guys have been able torun a show on a Thursday, turn
around and have it ready to airthe next Friday. In some cases not
old but I mean it just happenedwith Battle Ride for Instant or the War

(53:24):
Games for Instant. Ye, that'sthat's something we're going to do virtually every
show moving forward. We've been doingit's probably since July. I wanted our
stuff to be as fresh as possible. We have a we have a production
wherewith all to do it, sowhy not do it? Does it make
it more difficult running on Saturdays topull that off? Though? Now we

(53:45):
have a production truck, so it'sjust assembling the shows. And by that
point we know we can literally havesome of the show built and just plopping
the matches and as long as wedon't have to do ed where Scissor's hands
on the matches and all around them, it shouldn't be that difficult. But
you never know. You know,there could be some technical glitch with a

(54:07):
camera that you have to do someheavy post on, but there's there shouldn't
be a reason. We have agreat production truck that that makes doing this
stuff. I mean, we coulddo it live with the setup we have,
but we're pretty capable. We shouldn'thave a problem with that turnound.
We have a great production team likeNelson Swegler, who heads up TV operations

(54:27):
for us, was the head ofWWF WWA WWF TV Operations and that late
seventies to the mid nineties, groomedKevin Dunn for the role, worked with
Kevin's father. He's the head ofour TV operations and under him, we
also have senior producer Alex Greenfield.We have senior producer Bruce Pritchard. I

(54:49):
mean, we have very capable peoplein that department that make sure that everything's
smooth sailing. And when it comesto the contracts that you've mentioned, I
know Tom all around last week andhe said his MLWD pretty much lets him
work all but a few places.Corrent. Many of those types of deals
do you have out there with withtalent and what are those promotions that that

(55:09):
they're excluded from working. I'd saymost of the talent you see on MLW
has is under paper. The sametype of structure is yeah, and and
basically, you know, we promoteopen boarders, except for obviously the big
one because obviously it's a two waything. They would want us having access

(55:30):
to their contracted guys and vice versa. You know, that's that's the only
one we you know, And Ithink there's a lot of merit to learning
from the history of the past andnot repeating and promotions linking up and giving
fans an alternative. Which is aweird word because anytime anyone says that's always
been like some really lame promotion,that's saying fuck you. WW. Just

(55:53):
strategically, it's benefits the promotions towork together, so some of the talent
coming back and forth to do somethingthat makes sense, as long as everyone
doesn't get aggressive and start sabotaging eachother, which unfortunately is kind of the
nature of a promoter. But Ithink now where than ever, there's a
lot of new people in the gameand they look at the business differently,

(56:15):
and I think that's been very goodfor the business, and I hope it
continues. The last time I hadyou on the show, I asked you
why you went with Shane Strippling asthe new era MLW champion. What factored
in to your decision to take thetitle off of Shane. You know,
it's it's a feeling thing. You'refeeling where you are with a storyline at

(56:37):
that moment in time and Shane,you know, I wanted to get as
much sympathy on him and transition himto a longer issue with Sammy Callahan,
who would cost him the title tackinghim backstage and he goes in the match
with his knee taped up, andhe tries to use the knee and it
fails and low key exploits it,and then that would trigger them going to

(56:59):
war Games. I wanted to getmore more people invested in Shane, and
it was almost like parallels to RomanReigns. It's like you're you're feeding him
Pentagon, You're feeding him Matt Riddleand Brodie King, and is it working
or do you need to do somethinga little different and play a little dangerously

(57:21):
And that's that was the decision Imade. I talked to Shane about it.
He was one hundred percent cool withit and completely confident where we were
going with it, And uh,you can't ask her more than that.
Now, Loki's a guy who's hada bit of a rep over the years
for being tough to deal with,depending on who you talk to you he's
your champions of taking Shane out ofit. Why Loki? Why now?

(57:46):
It's it was the right moment,And the reaction online was very interesting because
there's this sense that, oh,good luck, will anyone ever low Key
is he gonna be okay with that? And you know, it's it puts
everything in jeopardy in in a veryinteresting way, and and so we'll have

(58:09):
to see how it plays out.I will tell you I've had an incredibly
positive relationship with low Key for twentyyears. He started with the Wild Samoans
probably around two thousand, almost eighteenyears, and was very fond of him
for years and worked with him inthe original MLW. Uh just always men's

(58:32):
respect and uh I've never had anynot one problem with him, and he's
been one of my true leaders inthe locker room or real pro and uh,
I would have I wish I couldclone him. He's fantastic, really
a great asset to our locker room. Proud to have him there, you

(58:54):
know. So you know, it'sit's interesting too because he's a guy that's
like just very straight up, likegood news or bad news. Here's what
it is, and here's why itis what it is, and as long
as you're not bullshitting and you don'thave a problem, I think a lot
of the times for certain guys,it's it's when you start when they start
to sniff the bullshit that's not onthem, that's on the promoter, that's

(59:15):
on the creative team or a bookeror a writer or whoever's and talent relations
at that moment. But Key hasbeen incredible, great asset. I'm very
happy we brought him in and he'shis match with Phoenix is fantastic. It's
got that Mexican heat. It's reallygood. And do you have like a

(59:37):
soft spot where guys that kind ofhave that problem child reputation. I'm a
problem child and probably you ask everywhereI've worked, So I mean it's like
you know, I mean my mentorwas a problem child for a lot of
the promoters out there. So it'sI don't know, it's it's they're not
problems. That's the crazy thing.I hope not a problem for for the

(01:00:00):
guys, but it's it's it's Idon't know. Again, I just think
there's you have a shorthand with aguy. Maybe you've known it for a
while and you understand where he's comingfrom, or just you never had those
same issues. For whatever reason,those conflicts haven't been the same different circumstances.

(01:00:20):
I can't I can't speak to theother people who had issues with other
guys, but you know, I'mprobably a problem child too. What happened
with m VP? I know youguys have been friends over the years.
He ended up leaving the company seeminglyon bad terms. What happened, Yeah,
we we hit the pause button.There was there was It was an
accumulation of some stuff that had happenedover some time. And uh, you

(01:00:44):
know, he really contributed a lotto MLW and uh he really he helped
advance us in a lot of ways. So you know, I have a
men's respect for p and uh,you know, it was it was not
an easy situation. I don't likeeven talking about it publicly because you know,
he's a guy I'm very fond ofand a friend, and you never

(01:01:07):
know what's around the corner, what'sdown the road. So you know,
hopefully there is an opportunity for usto work again. You know that that
would be something I would hope toone day to look at you know,
you in this business, it's like, you know, things happen and everyone
gets hot and then they publicly airit and then it's like, well,
now it's really awkward down the roadif you ever want to work with them.

(01:01:28):
And then it's you maybe get thegratification of a bunch of retweets or
likes for making the statement you made, but you know, it wasn't really
advanced in terms of business, interms of you know, future opportunity.
So uh, you know, Iwish him the best with everything he's got
going on. And uh uh,you know, he's a very talented dude.

(01:01:50):
And what happened with James Storm.I know he was in for your
last show and then there were reportsalmost instantly that it was he's gone.
It was a one and done it. But it wasn't planned to be a
one and done one, right,No. He he had a three match
deal with US, three event deal, and you know sometimes, you know,
I've never worked with him. Uh, I'm very fond of his work.

(01:02:14):
I thought, you know, hecould be a real great get for
us, and you know, youput something in play and you realize this
this situation is probably not working outfor us and probably not for him either,
And so I thought it over overthe course of from a Thursday to

(01:02:34):
I think that Monday, and that'swhen I made the call. But you
know, it's I was very excitedto work with with James Storm. I
really was someone I thought that wouldhave been an interesting fit with Tom Lawler
in particular, but at this momentin time, it didn't work out.
You guys love Tom Lawler. Imentioned this to Tom. I even wrote

(01:02:57):
one of my reviews like questioning,does this guy have stopped in the company.
You should see the Valentine card Isent him. It's amazing, I
wrote it. I wrote it inpink and he's doing great, a great
job. Talk about Tom. Whatis it that you see in Tom?
Why where are you guys as ryeas you are on him? Or he's
He's a guy that started with uson our first show back against Jeff Cobb
and he had only had at thatpoint twenty thirty forty matches. I don't

(01:03:22):
know, and there was a lotof potential there, but it was a
project. He I mean, toplevel athlete, great on the mic,
very credible with the UFC, Pedigreehad a foundation somewhere to Ken Shamrock originally
in pro wrestling, then went toMMMA, and now he was sitting out

(01:03:42):
and started taking dates and doing prowrestling and great at doing media, as
I'm sure you'll I'll test. That'sall. Absolutely, it's one of those
key boxes I check off. Reallya quick learner and you know, immensely
loyal to the promotion and really quicklyjust developed really quickly into a really top

(01:04:06):
level guy for us. And youknow, he's a project and he keeps
knocking out of the park and justlike Lakodo Brazil or anyone, it's like,
you know, it's merit based.You know, continue to bring it
and we'll continue to give you opportunity. And he was originally positioned as a
heel, but I started to realize, you know, this guy has something

(01:04:28):
that, yeah, if you justkeep him as a heel, but just
do a little subtle adjustment, hecould be a really interesting baby face.
And you see it in the BttleRiot. You know, he starts as
a heel. For two thirds ofthe match, he's a heel, and
by at the end of the match, with Swagger out there, they're channing
for him. The New York,a very tough market, is backing him
one hundred and ten percent, andthey do not want swagger to win.

(01:04:51):
And we turned him baby face inone night and he choked out Swaggle and
got a big boo at at thatpoint, and he didn't believe that we
could turn them. And I said, trust, trust the process, as
they say, and he did andhe knocked out of the park. And
that was a big That was abig moment for the company. You know,
it was a big moment for meas a book or to see if

(01:05:12):
I could in twenty eighteen pull somethinglike that off. You know, did
I get I? Did I havemy? Did was my? Did I
have the mojo? And And thatfor me was an emotional moment because I
was so proud of Tom as aproject to see him get to that level,
to be able to accomplish that inNew York, my hometown, but
also a very sophisticated audience h thatwill sniff something that doesn't work out and

(01:05:35):
just kill it. To be ableto pull that off. And it was
just a complicated match with so manymoving parts, so it's so much potential
for things to get fucked. Uwas was was probably one of the highlights
for me of of doing Major LeagueWrestling promoting MLW. Uh it really left
me feeling very satisfied for about twominutes, and then I started thinking about

(01:05:58):
all the other ship we still haveto do. But uh, that was
that was a very special moment.And so from Tom, you know,
now he pivots and and starts onhis hunt towards an eventual title match.
And so, uh, you know, we have twenty nineteen very well mapped
out. We have twenty eighteen mappedout. Uh, And so you know,

(01:06:19):
I really believe in booking backwards andand you kind of know who's on
what track. And along the way, maybe they go from the middle lane
to the left lane, or gofrom the middle lane to the right lane
because they've they've regressed, or they'rejust not they're not they're not clicking.
Whatever, you make adjustments and andand sometimes you learn something along the way

(01:06:40):
too. With Tom, it's beenvery very positive experience. And so,
uh, he's he really has he'sa lot of upward. I see a
lot of you see a lot ofthe young Piper in him, you know,
like that wise ass guy and Piperwas those guys that could you know,
be a baby face or a heeldepending on the situation and the tone

(01:07:02):
of his promo. And I seethat versatility in some ways in Tom a
few quickies to close here, youintroduced the MLW Middleweight Championship. Does this
mean we're eventually going to get acruiser or light heavyweight championship or is this
kind of the equivalent of that inMLW. Now this is you know,
I want there to be a possibilityfor you know, at one point if

(01:07:24):
my world heavyweight title where it wasto cool off, I could pivot and
go to the tag team titles asmy top belt, or my middleweight title
as my top belt, or ifwe're looking at right now on the drawing
boards, to have another bell introducedat a lower weight class at some point
in twenty nineteen, so you know, we might do something like that,

(01:07:45):
you know, the weight class thingsstill for me kind of an experiment to
see, you know, if we'reon the right path with this or not.
I think we could do a bitof a better job in certain ways
on it. And I'm very honestwith my team about that. Uh.
And it's also conditioning an audience thatyou know, I had to someone on
Twitter to say, it's like,okay, so low Keys are World heavyweight

(01:08:08):
champion, but MJF are middleweight champion. How does that work? As like,
well, MGF is two under,two of five caps on weight classes.
You know, really it's only atthe max, not at the minimum.
You know, you look at Spinks, you look at Roy Jones,
Junior Tyson, you know, arethey really true heavyweights? Yeah? I
mean it's like they can you cango up if you can hang with them,

(01:08:30):
but it might be more strategic tostay at a lower weight class.
But they have ceilings. So theceiling is on the middleweight belt anyone,
two, A, five and under. But wrestling fans aren't used to that.
So it's you know, it's likeare we fighting an uphill battle on
that? And should we just nameit the you know, South Dakota Championship.
You know, I don't know,you know, that's something that you

(01:08:53):
know, I still Eastern States Heritagetitle, a lot of heritage in those
Eastern States. I'm thinking of commonWealth Championship maybe, but so you know,
it's like it's something that I'm it'san experiment, and it's either one
of those that you know, wecan get up and running and I really
think we can do some big thingswith and it realizes that potential or it's

(01:09:14):
something that eventually I said, Okay, we're gonna call it the Eastern Heritage
Championship. I like it. Andwhat about the women's division. There's not
much of one right now. Iknow you've done a little bit with Sue
Young, but is that something that'sin the works where we see start to
see more women in MLW. Yeah, I think we you know, we're
regularly going to feature them. Wejust had Taya coming and debuted a few

(01:09:38):
weeks ago, so, uh,you know, the right match of the
right scenario. We look to showcasethe women whenever we can, whether it
was Santanic Garrett or Sue or ZetaZang. Chelsea Green's phenomenal, just a
great asset to any locker room.Uh yeah, we're we're we're looking at

(01:10:00):
different ways to showcase them always,and honestly, the network wants it too,
so we all want it. Wedid actually some really good vignettes that
are promo spots that aired on Bienfeaturing Santana that that played very well.
So it's just you know, findingthe right match, the right show and
all that stuff, and it's it'sreally important and that was something I really

(01:10:25):
wanted on my first show. It'slike, it's a really important moment for
women in the sport and we wantto be part of that promote that.
And one of the things is isfinding, you know, a roster of
women that you know we can balanceand have enough depth to make it a
true division work. And that's somethingthat we're looking at. And I mean

(01:10:48):
it's hard to believe in twenty nineteenright around the corner. I know you
didn't want to get into phase three, but maybe you can tell me how
many events you intend to run intwenty nineteen, and just in general,
you know what can fans ex asmore as twenty nineteen is concerned for MLW
easier to access MLW across the world. You know, we tape every four

(01:11:09):
weeks, so you know that thatthat schedule I think will probably be more
or less. Uh, it mightbe a little it might be a little
more intense at something a certain pointtowards the end of the year. We'll
see, but you know, justa very steady, stable growth march to
to the next phase. I don'twant to be overly aggressive because it's it's

(01:11:34):
hard to go back on that position. There's a moment in time where you
absolutely have to go aggressive, uh, and you kind of know when that
is and when that isn't. Soright now, we're still very much as
uh, you know, while anational company, UH with national TV and
touring and as many states as wecan and major markets as we can.

(01:11:58):
You know, we have to bea disciplined We have to be you know,
we're small, still very much astartup company in a lot of ways.
We've been around for a long time, but in a lot of ways
it's a whole new operation. Soyou know, we have to be disciplined
across the board, whether it's ourbudgets for production, for payroll, for
talent. We have to be careful, you know. We this We we

(01:12:21):
have a very rare, precious opportunityto be a national property with tentacles growing
into the international realm. So wehave to be careful and every step we
have to be very measured with howwe how we take it. You know,
I had my shop before, andI know how precious this opportunity is

(01:12:42):
and I want to make it count. And that's that's that's very important to
me is every step has to matter. We'll take us home anything you want
to plug and show Wise just ashort new universal Wise the floors. Sure.
Well, apparently we have a podcastnetwork full of great podcasts that you
can get at mlwradio dot com.There are just a Who's who on there

(01:13:05):
that you can check out, andMLW dot com is where you can learn
all about the league Major League Wrestling. And every Saturday night six oh five
pm on YouTube dot com slash MajorLeague Wrestling, a new episode of Fusion
drops commercial free subscribe for free toget it for free, and eight pm
Friday nights MLWS on Fusion on BMSports available in the US, Canada,

(01:13:30):
and in Puerto Rico and soon beyond. And we're very excited for our show
coming up October fourth in New YorkCity at Melrose Ballroom, which is headlined
by a big match pco versus LaPark, a battle of two brawlers,
two big ass, badass dudes.We're gonna have a full car kind of

(01:13:51):
released in the next few days.You're going to see a lot of announcements
rollout. That's going to be ahell of a show. You get tickets
to MW tickets dot com they starttwenty dollars to Fusion TV taping. Tony
Chevanni will be in the house forthe show. Everyone on our roster basically
will be on that show. Andthen October I'm sorry, November eight,

(01:14:12):
we're going to Chicago and tickets willstart ten dollars. They go on to
sall this Saturday at ten am CentralTime at MLW tickets dot com. And
that is going to be a stackedshow. We're rolling up to Chicago with
a big lineup and we'll be rollingout that lineup in the weeks to come.
But that's also gonna be Fusion TVtaping. There'll be a mean great
it's gonna have a who's who.You don't want to miss it. And

(01:14:36):
the world of MLW never stops.Check us out. It's MLW dot com
and YouTube dot com, slash MajorLeague Wrestling and on Twitter at MLW and
I'm on Twitter two at court Bauer. Good luck spelling it, but Google
you'll find it. As always.Thank you, my friend. I appreciate
the time. Always good to beon with you, Jason, but time

(01:15:04):
yep, I'm still fuming. Thanksfor nothing, Daniel Carlson. But A
big thank you to court Bower forjoining me again this week. Big thanks
to you for listening. Remember toshow us that five star love and I
too. It's I'll be back allright here again next week on the Boom