MSL says the door isn’t completely closed on MLW Fusion returning.
During a recent interview with WrestleZone, Major League Wrestling COO Mister St. Laurent (MSL) spoke about the future of MLW Fusion. The league recently debuted MLW Underground on REELZ, and Fusion went on hiatus starting in February.
Asked what Underground airing on Tuesdays means for Fusion’s future, MSL said that Fusion could always come back down the line, but MLW is putting all of the attention on Underground right now.
“Yeah, I mean, the focus right now is on Underground. It’s weird how we’ve come full circle because when MLW originally launched the OG incarnation of MLW, the original TV show was MLW Underground. So it is kind of crazy how 20 years later, we get this big TV deal, and Underground is back. We’ll have to see what the future holds. There’s a lot of interest in MLW right now. But we don’t want to inundate the fans with a ton of programming either; it’s a careful balance you have to have. There’s other companies that are asking for like eight hours of your time every week, and we want MLW to be a very easy ask if you love wrestling, give us an hour of your time Tuesdays at 10 o’clock. REELZ is a channel most people get; if you’re a cord cutter, you can get Freecast Value, which is a streaming service like six bucks that’s got REELZ and hundreds of other channels.
“We want to make being an MLW fan a fun, easy thing. We’re not asking for your firstborn. We don’t want you to devote your whole life to MLW, and so that’s part of what we bring to the table. Sure, there’s gonna be opportunities for other programming, and Fusion certainly can return at some point. But I think right now, with the launch of Underground on REELZ, that’s where the attention is.”
MSL also spoke about how fans will still be able to watch archived MLW content through the company’s broadcast deals with PWTV and around the globe.
“So Underground is going to start airing on airs on Ayozat Sky as well. There’s hundreds of hours of MLW content between Pro Wrestling TV and YouTube, and a lot of new fans are coming to the table, and they want to start digging into the archive and see stuff they missed. And I think another important thing if you’re new to MLW — Tuesdays at 11 classic MLW plays every week. So you can tune in for Underground at 10, see the new programming and if you want to catch up on some of the big matches you’ve missed in the past, just leave your TV on at 11, and you’ll get classic fights from MLW as well.”
Variety recently reported that Peacock was adding a live broadcast feed for REELZ, but MLW content would not be part of the deal due to WWE’s exclusive streaming agreement with Peacock. In addition, the report noted that MLW Underground would only air for ten weeks on REELZ.
MLW has aired four episodes of the Underground series so far; REELZ and MLW have not commented on the Variety report.
*This interview was conducted prior to the Variety report was published.
Check out the full interview below:
