Showtime In Talks With Major League Wrestling Over TV Deal?

Court Bauer's MLW eyeing up major new TV deal.

By Andrew Pollard / January 9, 2020

MLW

Right now, we as wrestling fans are spoiled.

With WWE, NXT, AEW, New Japan Pro Wrestling, Ring of Honor, NWA, and MLW just a selection of the promotions available to international audiences, there really is something for everyone. But for Court Bauer’s Major League Wrestling, there could be huge changes on the way.

Via Wrestling Inc., Showtime is showing some strong interest in bringing MLW to its programming.

Recently, Bauer has been in Los Angeles for some top-secret meetings with a major player in the TV game. Now, this new report indicates that the major player that the MLW CEO has been in talks with is Showtime.

Showtime was previously in negotiations to house All Elite Wrestling before AEW became tied to TNT. As for Major League Wrestling, the promotion is still currently partnered with beIN Sports for its weekly Fusion show.

While MLW is accessible across the globe, having the promotion land a regular spot on Showtime would be a huge step up in terms of exposure. Since Court Bauer resurrected MLW in July 2017, the company has continued to go from strength to strength – with stars such as Jacob Fatu, ‘Filthy’ Tom Lawler, Sami Callihan, the Hart Foundation, and a certain Maxwell Jacob Friedman all key components of drawing new eyes to MLW over the past couple of years.

Authored by Andrew Pollard

Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.

Posted On: 9th Jan 2020

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