MLW was on the verge of landing a massive weekly live TV deal with Paramount — until the company’s $7 billion-plus UFC media rights agreement came along and changed everything.
Court Bauer (Credits: Ringside News)
Speaking on the October 31 edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, MLW founder Court Bauer revealed his promotion had been deep into negotiations with Paramount in 2025 for a weekly live television show launching in fall 2025. “The company they were talking with last year at Paramount prior to the Skydance acquisition was MLW,” Bauer said. “We had the deal pretty much laid out.”
MLW’s Paramount Deal Was Ready to Go
Talks began around April 2025 during MLW’s Los Angeles trip and moved fast. The company was already preparing to staff up and scale production for live weekly programming. “We were looking to start in the fall of ’25, which was pretty exciting, and to staff up, scale up, because it was going to be live weekly. And so it was pretty ambitious thing.”
The deal was being shepherded through the Skydance acquisition clearance — MLW was told it was on standby and the deal would go. Then the corporate ground shifted: one key Paramount executive got a golden parachute before the merger closed, and another, Jesse Siskel, left Skydance for RedBird Capital this week.
The $7 Billion UFC Deal That Killed MLW’s Plans
The final blow arrived one morning when Bauer’s team woke up to a Variety press release: Paramount had struck a UFC deal worth north of $7 billion. Bauer said Siskel told them the UFC agreement “happened at a very high level” — so high that people involved in other TV discussions did not even know it existed. “And that deal happened and, you know, strategies shifted.”
MLW is back to building its current operation — but Bauer’s revelation shows just how close the promotion came to the biggest stage in its history.
Also Read: MLW’s Court Bauer Breaks Silence on Tessa Blanchard’s Delayed Debut and Tessa Blanchard to Face Keyra in MLW Debut at Saturday Night SuperFight on November 7
Source: Ringside News — read the full story there.