Court Bauer, owner of MLW, recently sat down with Forbes to talk about a variety of topics ranging from WWE’s ratings to his own promotion of MLW. Court worked for WWE as a writer until 2007 and had the following to say about his own promotion compared to WWE.
On WWE’s declining ratings:
WWE has been tracking downward in the ratings since I was at WWE in 2007. Fans are sophisticated. They’re selective. They are pursuing other outlets for pro wrestling. I see wrestling represented on the streets of New York, I see it threaded through the cultural fabric today maybe more than ever before. WWE is like McDonald’s: they’re global, affordable and readily available anywhere, anytime but society wants more gluten-free, organic or just something different. Sure, McDonald’s, like WWE, is everywhere—ready to be consumed, but not many enjoy digesting it.
On why MLW is different from WWE:
Big fights have context and consequences. When wrestling is clicking for me, it reflects what’s going on culturally beyond pro wrestling. I sprinkle that into my recipe for MLW. We’re not parodying, we’re not winking at the audience that they’re in on it. We think different. We can’t and don’t want to play to the overcrowded diehard fan base that our competitors are targeting.
On the target demographic for MLW:
We used our Spanish series to cultivate a neglected fanbase of first and second-generation Mexican-Americans that want a piece of home, so we give that to them with great lucha. That is 50-60% of our fanbase. Then, we have the guy who wants to crack open a beer and watch a wild fight. He wants that down and dirty scrap and carnage. That’s about 25-30% of our audience. Then, diehards fill out the last 5-10%.
Check out the complete interview here and let us know what you think about Court’s remarks in the below comments section.
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