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Court Bauer On Why The Von Erichs Chose MLW Over NXT

November 9, 2019 | Posted by Joseph Lee

In an interview with Wrestling Inc, MLW founder Court Bauer explained why Ross and Marshall Von Erich decided to work for his promotion instead of WWE’s NXT brand. Here are highlights:

On the Von Erichs in MLW: “We started talking to them in January but closed the deal in late spring. Two weeks later we found out that the Viceland special was coming so it was serendipitous and everyone thought it was a reaction to the Viceland special but we were in talks for months. They turned down NXT and elected to go to us and they came at a time when we were looking for something special and different. They checked off a lot of boxes for me with that kinda Steve Austin-style of brawling or Texas-style brawling: 100 miles per hour and pushing the action at you. And they’re great guys.”

On MLW’s legacy wrestlers: “With MLW it wasn’t by design but we have a lot of legacy guys coming in like Brian Pillman Jr. People will chant ‘Pillman’ again and be able to invest in his journey. It’s something so special and pure about pro wrestling that you don’t really have with MMA, boxing or other sports…You know how to pay it off because you have controls in pro wrestling. That’s what I think makes pro wrestling the best sport because of these qualities… The Von Erichs for us have been a major get in 2019. For the guys like Alex Hammerstone and Jacob Fatu, the 2019 class of MLW has been wild. If you look at who they are and where they’ll be in the next few years, it’s incredible. It’s really just a special crew.”

On why the Von Erichs didn’t go to NXT: “The presentation of The Von Erich family – people don’t realize when Kerry went to WWE they changed him to The Texas Tornado. Kevin would talk about that and say, ‘Why would you run away from the Von Erich name?’ Also just a lifestyle choice as they have families. Kevin has many grandkids out in Hawaii so the quality of life decision was important to them. There’s also this weird, surprising connective tissue between Kevin and his sons and me through Gary Hart and knowing what I’m looking to do with them. It’s much aligned with what Gary did who is my mentor and was the matchmaker behind WCCW. There’s a lot of accidental connective tissue that made it feel more comfortable to them.”

On MJF and Jimmy Havoc also working for AEW: “I don’t. I think the fans are sophisticated enough to know that the presentations are different and they’re not gonna be like, ‘Oh, they’re schizophrenic characters.’ I think in presentation they are vaguely consistent and AEW’s doing a good job as are we so there hasn’t been any of that weirdness.”

article topics :

Court Bauer, Joseph Lee