MLW CEO Court Bauer held a media call to promote last weekend’s Fightland taping, which saw the crowning of a new world champion in Alexander Hammerstone. Bauer discussed the promotion’s big plans for 2021, as well as touched on domestic partnerships, where he confirmed that MLW was in talks with WWE. Highlights are below.
Confirms that MLW was in talks with WWE earlier this year:
We’re talking with different offices about bringing their talent in and doing some international title matches. As for domestic partnerships, that’s where it gets a little tricky. We’ve had talks, people are probably aware, we talked with WWE earlier this year. You have these conversations, try to see how it would work, and the biggest concern you have, at least for me, is you’re kind of inviting tortious interference and allowing it to happen if you go down that road and if you don’t feel like you’re getting enough in return to even take that risk, what are you doing? What’s the strategy there? It can be very complicated, whether it’s WWE or another company.
Why it’s risky to have those partnerships because it can make your talent look like lesser stars:
It can be risky because often the talent, when they come through, you’re not going to now be able to control the creative for. These guys you spent a lot of time building up are now not in your system and now they are main event stars in MLW, but they go over there for a cameo and they’re not treated like top guys, you’re doing a disservice to them and your fans that have invested in their journey. It’s a really delicate thing and every conversation with every company is different. It’s a bit of a dance and sometimes it’s the forbidden dance.
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful
)