During the 2021 MLW Open Draft, Alex Kane was drafted to American Top Team.
Kane, nicknamed “The Suplex Assassin," joined King Mo as a member of ATT and MLW. ATT and AEW have struck a recent partnership with ATT owner Dan Lambert regularly appearing on AEW television and fighters such as Junior dos Santos and Jorge Masvidal getting involved in the action.
Speaking to Andrew Thompson of POST Wrestling, Kane discussed how his MLW deal came together.
"I’ve always liked -- from what I’ve seen from the new MLW, I’ve always liked how everything is presented. It’s presented in like -- it’s presented kind of like a UFC in a sense, just with like a pro wrestling twist to it. A lot of the gaga stuff is cut. MLW feels like anything could legitimately happen. It feels like Raw used to feel back in the day, like anything could happen and then the fact that they have so many guys, it’s kind of like a variety show in a sense. They got luchadores, we got MMA fighters, we got wrestlers, we got pro wrestlers or whatever. We kind of got a little bit of everything so you can kind of -- I think we’re hitting every demographic that’s needed and now we’re adding a women’s division. So, and just like… even now, before I didn’t know anybody there but, just talking to people in the office or whatever and being able to ask questions and not be shamed for asking any questions. There’s no stupid question. The only stupid question is the question that isn’t asked. But it was kind of, I guess going into my signing itself, I was literally checking my email one day. I was just checking my email and I saw an email from MLW and it was like, ‘Yo, were you ever interested in wrestling for MLW?’ And I was like, ‘Hell yeah,’ because three months before that, I did an interview and the interviewer was like, ‘Yo, if you could go anywhere, where would you wanna go?’ And I was like, ‘MLW’ because it fits my style, and then three months later, I get an email and the contract negotiations and stuff was really easy because they kind of took into account that I’m young in the business but like when we were talking about it, there was literally no downside to me or whatever. It was all upside. At the time, being two years in, having a contract from a major company, no pun intended. But to have a contract from a major company this early in the game for me, it’s only going to increase my reach as far as social media and stuff goes. I’ve gained so many followers and so many fans and so many people watch the product. People come to shows and be like, ‘Yo, I saw you on the Battle Riot. Yo, I saw your debut, sh*t was nuts. You f*cking rule,'" said Kane.
Kane continued by saying that Dan Lambert negotiated his deal with MLW.
"And then with signing with MLW and Dan Lambert negotiating my contract, that was pretty awesome," he said. "I should be going to train at the [American] Top Team facility in Atlanta here in the next month or two. I’m trying to -- me and Mo, me and King Mo are trying to arrange everything so everything went smoothly. But having King Mo in my corner is like the greatest thing ever. I always say he’s like the uncle I never had. Our chemistry is insane. It’s like we’ve known each other forever and he’s super knowledgeable as far as like presenting yourself, what to say, what to do. He’s always -- anytime we meet at tapings and stuff, he’s always showing me something new, some new hold, some new way to get into something, so that’s really, really dope, and then just talking to him on a daily basis has been awesome. Like I never would have thought like seeing King Mo in TNA years ago and then being -- having his number in my phone today is insane to think about."
Kane competed in the 2021 MLW Opera Cup, losing in the semifinals to Calvin Tankman. Along with competing in MLW, Kane also wrestles for SUP, ACTION, and other independent companies.
He is set to compete in the ladder match for the vacant MLW National Openweight Championship at MLW War Chamber. Fightful will have coverage of MLW War Chamber following the conclusion of the event on November 6.
