This weekend, Major League Wrestling is presenting their War Chamber event from the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The vacant National Openweight Championship will be on the line when competitors Alex Kane, Myron Reed, Alex Shelley, Zenshi and a mystery opponent compete for the title in a Ladder match.
Ahead of the bout, I caught up with Alex Kane, who MLW CEO Court Bauer publicly said has a big future in MLW. Kane was trained at the WWA4 school in Georgia which is run by AR Fox. Alex spoke highly of Fox and what he was able to learn from him but also wants to see his trainer get a break on a nationally televised wrestling program.
Man, I wanna say like a month or two ago, every week within that month, I would post, ‘Sign AR Fox’ or, ‘AR Fox should be on national television.’ I mean because I know that’s his dream, he wants to be on that stage and for him to help all of us at the [WWA4] kind of realize our dream. I always say getting trained by AR Fox is like getting the MyCareer starter pack, the [NBA 2K] video game or whatever so it kind of puts you ahead of guys that have been wrestling for years because he doesn’t waste your time. He’s wrestled everywhere, he’s wrestled everybody so he has all of that knowledge on top of his own. So like, it really is like having a booster pack but I definitely think that he should be, whether it’s just a few dates or even what would be best I think would be a full-time contract but whichever one it is, he deserves to be on the national stage. He’s been everywhere, he’s wrestled everyone. He’s given so much to wrestling and I know wrestling doesn’t owe you anything but I think that he at least deserves the opportunity. There’s so many guys that are wrestling at that next level that he’s helped get there. They’ve had their best match or they had that match right before they got signed. I know it would mean everything to him to be on that stage and that’s where he deserves to be.
The WWA4 school would regularly host events and Alex Kane would be one of the trainees who was able to compete on the show. At an event in 2018, Kane shared the ring with current All Elite Wrestling talent Lee Johnson.
I asked Alex what it’s like to reflect on those days when he and Lee were getting their in-ring careers started and just several years later, they’re both signed to wrestling organizations. Here was his response:
We [Alex & Lee Johnson] had a conversation. I think it was the week of the match that we were gonna have and just talking about where we wanna go, where we see ourselves or whatever in couple years and for that couple years not to be like five, six years, whatever. It could literally be like two or three years, to be signed, but to be signed to AEW and MLW, it’s pretty nuts and I think it also serves as like motivation to the guys coming up to know that it doesn’t always take ten or 15 years. If you got it, you got it and I feel like those things aren’t — I guess those intangibles can be taught. Again, you either got it or you don’t…
It was formally announced in May that Alex joined the Major League Wrestling roster. He was also announced as a member of American Top Team alongside King Mo. Alex shared that A.T.T. owner Dan Lambert negotiated his MLW deal.
Alex will be visiting the American Top Team facility within the next several months to go train with fellow team members. He went on to speak about the chemistry that he and King Mo have developed during their time together in MLW.
And then with signing with MLW and Dan Lambert negotiating my contract, that was pretty awesome. 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.
The topic of creative freedom came up during the conversation and Alex spoke about how talents in MLW have room to work with as far as their promos go. He described it as talents being given bullet point material and having the freedom to hit on those bullet points however they see fit. He said there is trust there between talents and the powers that be.
Yeah, it’s kind of like they [MLW] give you bullet points but you don’t — and they have them written. They have the bullet points written out. They’re not like, ‘You have to say it like this.’ They’re more like, ‘This is kind of like the gist of where we want you to go with it but we want you to say it in your own words’ which is really awesome and I wish that in other companies it was like that for the performers and stuff because being able to say it in your own words because like — yeah, being able to say it in your own words, in your own way I feel makes it a lot more relatable than regurgitating somebody’s typed out lines. But yeah, we really do kind of have a good bit of freedom of what we say because we’re all professionals, we know not to say anything stupid or anything like that but there’s ways to say things or whatever to get whatever heat or praise that you need to get without being an a-hole.
When asked why he decided to sign with MLW, Alex said it came down to MLW having the feel of anything can happen at any moment. He thinks MLW is tapping into every demographic.
He feels there was no downside to him signing with MLW and added that during negotiations, they took into account how young he is in the business and helped guide him through the negotiations.
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.’
On a recent MLW media call, CEO Court Bauer spoke highly of Alex Kane. Although it meant a lot to Kane to hear Bauer speak that way about him publicly, that is not something new in their business relationship.
Alex stated that Court often tells him how much he appreciates him and is thankful that he opted to join MLW.
The day that I was announced [to have signed with MLW], me and Court [Bauer] have been talking since then. I talk to Court on a daily basis and he always — it’s really, really dope. He’s constantly encouraging me, he’s constantly feeding me ideas; different ways to move, different ways to act. He’s really, really fun to collaborate with. But like, he constantly tells me how special I am and how thankful he is for me to have chosen MLW to be my home.
On top of his work in MLW, Alex has become a constant in ACTION Wrestling and he recently went one-on-one with former MLW National Openweight Champion Alex Hammerstone for the PCW ULTRA promotion.
Alex can be found on Twitter @Alex_kane11 and on Instagram @thesuplexassassin. Our interview can be watched on the Andrew Thompson Interviews YouTube channel or via the player at the top of this article.
