Like many others, Alex Kane was excited for MLW Slaughterhouse, but knows safety comes first.
Kane spoke with WrestleZone Managing Editor Bill Pritchard ahead of MLW Slaughterhouse, which was scheduled for October 4 in St. Petersburg, Florida. Slaughterhouse was ultimately canceled by MLW due to the severe impact of Hurricane Helene on the Tampa Bay region.
Despite the event getting canceled, they still proceeded with the interview, where Kane shared how talent found out about the situation at hand. Kane said things developed rather quickly, and understood why the show was called off so quickly.
Alex Kane on MLW Slaughterhouse
“[MLW’s Court Bauer] sent me a link to what the area looked like. I think there was a fire going on or something like that down the street from the venue, so that looked pretty bad. And it all looked really flooded,” Kane said. “I want to say maybe an hour or two later, I got another text message from the office that the show has been canceled. Not even postponed but canceled.
“Which sucks, but I understand why. It’s not safe,” Kane added. “The area in St. Pete looked devastated. So I definitely understand not doing it for the safety of the people, but also safety of us. [You had] all these different variables coming in on top of being flooded. It’s terrible.”
MLW doesn’t have another scheduled television taping until its Lucha Apocalypto event in Chicago on November 9. Kane says he asked if there are any plans to supplement content for their broadcast schedule until then, but it’s a work in progress.
“I asked the office if they were going to, if we’re just going to charge that to the game or if we’re going to actually do something else. They said that they’re working on that and they’re going to get back to me. They said they’re not going to leave me hanging,” Kane said. “So, we’ll see. Hopefully, they’ll come up with something, because I was really looking forward to it.”
Kane on his feud with AJ Francis
Earlier this year, Kane was engaged in a heated feud with AJ Francis. The pair fought over the leading the Bomaye Fight Club, and the feud drew clear comparisons to Black Panther. Kane says they never sat down and hammered out exact details in the beginning, but they drew from the film the longer it went on.
“It wasn’t necessarily like we sat down and we talked about this, like ‘This is what it’s going to be.’ I think it was one of those situations that that’s what it ended up becoming. Because when you look at the story, it does seem like the first movie,” Kane explained. “In this [scenario in MLW], I am the T’Challa [role]. We fight the first time, he beats me or it looks like I’m dead. He’s taking everything from me… [metaphorically] throws me off the cliff, he’s running the kingdom now [like in the movie].”
Alex Kane on Ritual Combat
Kane says returning for the next fight, a Ritual Combat match, was a great dramatic moment for him as a performer and in the movie.
“When it comes in back into Atlanta [for their Ritual Combat match], like when Black Panther’s walking up and he’s just got his hands out,” he said. “Basically like, ‘Yo! What’s up?’ Same thing in the movie, T’Challa’s people started coming back around to him. They weren’t ever really down for Killmonger but that’s the situation that they’re in.
“But we try to tell that story with — the office calls them cheerleaders. I like to call them training folks or whatever. But on the stage, they were slowly shifting back to my side instead of all being on AJ’s side. It was cool,” Kane noted. “And we called it Ritual Combat. So that made it that much — they gave you much more of a [direct] call to the movie itself.”
Check out our full interview with Alex Kane below:
Read More: AJ Francis Shares How MLW Angle Was Inspired By ‘Black Panther’
