Court Bauer talks Alex Hammerstone.
In October 2023, Alex Hammerstone requested his release from Major League Wrestling. A few days later, the former MLW World Heavyweight Champion posted to social media and provided an update to fans, saying that he communication was sparse with the company.
On November 18, 2023, Hammerstone returned to the promotion at the Fightland event and aligned with the WTF (World Titan Federation). Days later, Fightful Select noted that promotion agreed to release Hammerstone from his contract at the end of 2023, as long as he worked with the World Titan Federation for the remainder of the year.
Fightful recently spoke to MLW CEO Court Bauer for a new interview. In the chat, Bauer spoke about Hammerstone, first saying that he's been away from wrestling operations as of late due to MLW's ongoing legal battle with WWE.
"When you look at those kind of things, every organization has challenges that come up with talent. I look at Hammer and his tenure at MLW, and he was the franchise guy for four or five years, he basically lost one or two matches that whole time. That tells you where we had him in our system. You get those challenges and bumps in the road, and you think you can’t repair those issues. Then, you have a cooling-off period; you try to look at this...I’m approaching 2024 with this fresh first-day-on-the-job approach. These last two years, I’ve been frankly away from wrestling operations and doing a lot with this lawsuit, which isn’t an excuse, there’s just only so much time in the day. Because of that, things happen. I definitely take responsibility for that. Then, it’s on me to go in there and try to fix things along with my team.
Bauer went on to say that he felt it was important to restore a relationship with Hammerstone. Bauer also compared the situation to CM Punk's recent return to WWE.
With Hammerstone, I really feel it was important that this relationship be repaired and restored to a way where there is not that animosity. We’ve had those discussions and I think we’ve reconciled. He’s been a very strong presence in the company. Going forward, it’s going to be a positive thing. CM Punk is a great example of that. I don’t think anyone thought, there were some real bad feelings with WWE, never thought he’d come back. Then, he’s back. That’s the beauty of wrestling, you can have a lot of that happen. When there is an opportunity to do business, time passes, and you’re really ready to explore a solution that works for both sides, it’s water under the bridge. Hammer has been man enough to do that and I think we’re both grateful for that."
Elsewhere in the interview, Court Bauer talked about the possibility of a wrestling supershow. Fans can learn more here.
Furthermore, fans can see Fightful's full interview with Court Bauer in the video linked at the top of this article.
MLW One Shot is set to air on Thursday, December 7. The event will aire on FITE+. Fightful will have coverage of the event as it airs.
