MLW going down already?

[Guest Markingout]

Major League Wrestling sent out a press release today announcing their 2/14 return to Orlando, Florida at Tabu was "postponed." The venue had been the site of the promotion's return TV tapings last month.

 

MLW announced in the release the show "would be rescheduled for a later date" and all tickets could be honored at the promotion's 2/13 event or fans can get refunds by emailing [email protected]. The release also noted that fans would be given a free MLW T-shirt as an apology for the postponement. There is no word on whether Terry Funk (who was only announced for 2/14) will be appearing on 2/13 instead. I was unable to reach MLW owner Court Bauer for comment.

 

The press release noted there would be additional matches added to the 2/13 return to Fort Lauderdale, Florida at the War Memorial Armory. That lineup currently features:

 

*MLW champion Steve Corino with JJ Dillon vs. Shane Douglas

*Teddy Hart & Jack Evans & Apocalypse vs. Juventud Guerrera & Los Maximos vs. Sonjay Dutt & Dark Fuego & M-Dogg 20 in a six-sided ring elimination match

*Raven vs. Justin Credible: No DQ

*MLW Global Tag Team Crown champions CW Anderson & Simon Diamond vs. The Stampede Bulldogs

*PJ Friedman vs. Norman Smiley

*The Havana Pitbulls vs. Bobby Quance & Puma

*Also appearing are Low Ki, Matt Martel, Mike Modest, Ray Gordy, Chad Collyer, The Samoan Island Tribe, Sabu, Rich Criado, Fabulous Texan, Chasyn Rance, JJ Dillon, Gary Hart and more.

 

All Japan Pro Wrestling's Taiyo Kea is scheduled to return to MLW on 3/13. He had been a regular for the first several shows with the company prior to his ACL tear in 2002.

 

The promotion also announced that their 4/10 event (location TBA) will be headlined by a 40 man "Battle Riot" (Royal Rumble with elimination by pinfall, submission, or over the top to the floor) where the winner would face MLW champion Steve Corino at the end of the night

 

Well better for me. More matches on 2/13 Bad for MLW buisness wise. two shows have been moved or cancelled already.

[LucharesuFan619 0]

Jeez...Not lookin good for da Court.

 

More MLW news...

 

MLW TO DEBUT 40 MAN BATTLE RIOT ON 4/10:

MLW is proud to announce that on April 10th, MLW will debut the 40 man Battle Riot match at a location to be announced next week. Tickets for this event will be on sale in less than two weeks. Please stay tuned MLW Underground TV and www.MLW.com for the latest on this big event.

 

MLW will present the company’s first ever Battle Riot. The goal in this specialty match is simple: 40 men will compete in a variation of the traditional battle royal and royal rumble match where participants will enter every two minutes and be eliminated by: 1) pin fall, 2) submission, or 3) being thrown over the top rope to the floor with the winner of the Battle Riot getting a crack at the World Heavyweight Championship… THAT SAME NIGHT on April 10, 2004!

 

While specific details regarding the participants are not available at this point in time, MLW can confirm that there will be at least one mystery entry as well as a legend entry. Both competitors may or may not have appeared in MLW prior to this event. Look for the 40 participants to be announced In the coming weeks on MLW Underground TV and www.MLW.com.

[Guest OSIcon]

Too bad this didn't happen a couple of weeks ago. Then ROH could have had a few more choices on talent for the Anniversary show (Jack Evans, Collyer in the Pure Wrestling tournament, ect.). I wonder who many more cancelations they will have until some of the fans down there begin getting fed up with it.

 

That Battle Royal could be a mess. The good WWE Royal Rumbles work because they are meticulously laid out so there isn't a lot of clutter at anyone point and so that dozens of stories can take place in the one match. All of the Royal Rumbles aren't even guarenteed to be good, yet Court is going to try and do one with ten more wrestlers, without someone like Pat Patterson to aly it out, and without the added help of the fans being so into the wrestler's personas and stories that it makes up for the lack of wrestling. Don't know about that.

[PsychoDriver 0]

Hmm that can't be good... what matches were set for 2/14? That was supposed to be the 43rd and 1/4 annual Terry Funk retirement show or something wasn't it?

 

But well that "Battle Riot" thing sounds like it could either be alot of fun or terrible. Hopefully it turns out well...

[Guest TDinDC1112]

They should be running 1 show a month and not flying in tons of people for it. This is what got them in trouble last time.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

Damn it....

 

So...I finally get MLW on TV...and they stop running show.

 

Now I finally get MLW on TV back...and they're running into more trouble.

 

For the love of God MLW...just run one show a month and show it to me on TV!!!!!!!!!

[Guest Markingout]

Yeah the 2/14 was hinted at being a retirement for Funk. The matches on 2/14 were

 

NO DISQUALIFICATION: THE EXTREME HORSEMEN (C.W. ANDERSON/STEVE

CORINO/JUSTIN CREDIBLE) v. THE SAMOAN ISLAND TRIBE/MYSTERY PARTNER

 

-TEDDY HART v. JUVENTUD GUERRERA

 

-MLW GLOBAL JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION: SONJAY DUTT v. CHAD COLLYER

 

-THE HAVANA PITBULLS v. THE STAMPEDE BULLDOGS

-JACK EVANS v. BOBBY QUANCE

 

-A GAUNTLET MATCH

[Guest Jimbo]

Bleh, they are just delaying the inevitable.

 

But the Battle Royale thing sounds intriguing...

[Guest The Notorious CRD]

I hope MLW can hang in there because I enjoy their stuff, but I'm guessing some other indy will spring up to take their place if they don't. Still, MLW would do well to run one show a month and then air it on TV as BPS said. Heck, they can even sell tapes of the shows for added revenue.

[Michrome 0]

It's not too late OSICON....Gabe can still sign evans for 2/14 to try to get spotfest fans to drive there. There are now a lot more choices for the mystery opponent. I wouldn't want Collyer in the tourney, anyway.

[Guest ToddRoyal]

I'm sure Credible and the SAT at least will find their way on to the ROH Anniversary Show, esp. since they already announced Credible for the CC/Special K match. It'll be interesting to see if they add one of those 6-way matches with some of the MLW talent. But I'm sure Gabe has the mystery guy finalized by now anyway.

 

Oh- and don't look too good for MLW. They apparently didn't learn from hiring a TON of highly paid talent to work shows infront of 200 people with little to no video sales the FIRST time.

[r4g 0]

Pretty sad, but we all knew this was going to happen.

 

2/13 show looks amazing, though. Hopefully it's one of those six hour shows. Gonna be in Lauderdale watching that and then I'm driving up that night to Ruskin for a show at noon...going to be a shitload of fun. See (whoever's coming to 2/13) there.

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

Too bad this didn't happen a couple of weeks ago.  Then ROH could have had a few more choices on talent for the Anniversary show (Jack Evans, Collyer in the Pure Wrestling tournament, ect.).  I wonder who many more cancelations they will have until some of the fans down there begin getting fed up with it.

 

That Battle Royal could be a mess.  The good WWE Royal Rumbles work because they are meticulously laid out so there isn't a lot of clutter at anyone point and so that dozens of stories can take place in the one match.  All of the Royal Rumbles aren't even guarenteed to be good, yet Court is going to try and do one with ten more wrestlers, without someone like Pat Patterson to aly it out, and without the added help of the fans being so into the wrestler's personas and stories that it makes up for the lack of wrestling.  Don't know about that.

I am not 100% on this but I think I remember hearing Gabe say something about Collyer will NOT be back with ROH, possibly because of him no showing because of a Japan tour? Can someone elaborate if I am incorrect?

[Guest OSIcon]

I am not 100% on this but I think I remember hearing Gabe say something about Collyer will NOT be back with ROH, possibly because of him no showing because of a Japan tour? Can someone elaborate if I am incorrect?

 

He wasn't used for a while after backing out of his Death Before Dishonor match with Stryker in July to take a tour with M-Pro. He let them know just days before the show where he was supposed to wrestle Matt Stryker and finally lose to him (after beating him three times), thus paying off that particular angle. Frustrated by the late notice and the fact that the angle would go unfinished, they decided to stop using him. They patched things up though in order to use him in the Pure Wrestling Tournament. He wrestled at the Maryland show on 1/29 for them (against John Walters).

[thuganomics 0]

Maybe Funk decided he's not retiring now that he's a regular on NWA TNA?

 

I'm guessing it was just too hard to schedule talent against ROH, so they rescheduled. More talent=more drawing power=more money and all that.

[Guest Mosaicv2]

MLW= closin down... looks like it

[Guest TDinDC1112]

Meltzer just reported in his daily update that he has gotten calls from wrestlers who have been told that Friday night's show is now cancelled too.

 

MLW just really sucks.

[Guest ToddRoyal]

From PWInsider.com:

 

Major League Wrestling's event scheduled for this Friday 2/13 at the War Memorial Auditorium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida has been canceled.

 

Employees of the promotion were told, "As of now all live events have been canceled" in messages left by MLW owner Court Bauer. One MLW regular who received a voicemail from Bauer described it as, "A farewell message of sorts."

 

It is believed that at this point and time, Major League Wrestling is done. Attempts to reach MLW owner Court Bauer are thus far, unsuccessful so we don't have complete confirmation on that fact, but it certainly appears to be the case.

 

The announcement comes just a day after the promotion sent out plane tickets to the wrestlers for this Friday's event.

 

Major League Wrestling had returned just a month ago with a pair of TV Tapings in Orlando, Florida and a slot on the Sunshine Network in Florida.

 

MLW's return to Orlando, scheduled for 2/14, was "postponed" in an announcement earlier this week. The January events were the first live events promoted by MLW since a September 2003 Wargames event in Fort Lauderdale. The promotion announced it was "reorganizing" shortly afterwards.

 

As of 4 PM, Ticketmaster and the venue were still going under the impression that the show was taking place, but the messages left for MLW staff would indicate otherwise

 

Well, that's what happens when you don't learn anything from your mistakes the first time. Court Bauer seemed like a guy with good intentions at least but he was getting HORRIBLE business advice (or none at all) in running MLW and this was bound to happen.