MLW owner Court Bauer was interviewed on The Insiders podcast for AdFreeShows.com where he shared stories from his time as a writer for WWE in the mid-2000s.
During it, he looked back on Shane McMahon wanting to buy Pride and Vince McMahon’s reluctance to do so. Pride was Japan’s version of the UFC, but when it was up for sale, the UFC bought it instead of Vince.
“I think he thought that was where the business was going. It shared some of the DNA that wrestling has. I think he was also looking for his castle in the kingdom. Here’s something I can run. This is something I can now develop and we have such a similar business in terms of the production, and the licensing, and the touring, like the infrastructure and spreading it into this category of MMA. Seems pretty easy to do. But Vince’s apprehension was always that he couldn’t control the outcome. He’s invested in his fighters. He just felt like, come on, we got a model that really works. Why take the risk and something that is too unpredictable. I think there was a little hesitation because still in the late 90s you had a lot of problems with athletic commissions and stuff and they got pulled off pay-per-view because of things that Campbell McLaren had said.”
Quotes via WrestlingNews.co