MLW owner and former WWE writer Court Bauer recently made an appearance on pro wrestling legend Chris Jericho's "Talk Is Jericho" podcast to talk about a number of topics such as holding on to his talent despite fierce competition from AEW and the WWE by not getting paid for four years because it was not fiscally responsible for him to do that and that money went to the talent, the crew and the staff.
Court Bauer also talked about how top talents like Jacob Fatu and Alex Hammerstone could have entered free agency a number of times since signing with the company four or five years ago, but they elected to opt out and re-sign with them.
Court Bauer said:
“I think there's a few things. One, Fatu and Hammerstone could have entered free agency at least two or three cycles since coming in four or five years ago. They elected to opt out and re-up with us. I've always said, 'Look, we're gonna grow together. As we grow, as my budgets change, that money is going to you.' I mean, straight up, I didn't get paid in MLW until this past year. I didn't take a paycheck for four years because that money is going into the company. It wasn't fiscally responsible for me to do that. It went to the talent. It went to the crew. It went to the staff.”
“So for us, it's like, yes, we were able to pay you more, but the other part of it is, this is a system like any professional athlete. You find that system whether it was for Belichick in football, Phil Jackson back in the day for the Bulls, that you just thrive in that system. It just works for you. It works for you in a lot of different ways. The locker room culture works for you. All these things work for you, so you re-up. It feels like a good fit, it fits right, and also you know that you we're a free agent beforehand and AEW was around, WWE was around, and maybe you had a look at one of those companies or both those companies and they passed on you. So I think part of it is kind of like what Dreamer once said. He had that shot. He did tryouts for WCW and WWF back in the day, but it was ECW where he found it and he was fiercely loyal because they were the ones that gave him that stage. I think there's a little bit of that with us too.”
You can check out Court Bauer's full comments at this link. H/T to WrestlingNews.co for transcribing the above quotes.
