Various: MLW Signs Deal with FITE for Live Events, Rocky Romero on NJPW Strong Women’s Title, Indies

May 3, 2023

MLW Signs Deal with FITE TV For MLW Live Events

FITE TV announced that they have recently signed a deal with Major League Wrestling to air their live events specials live on the FITE+ service starting this July.

It was announced that the first MLW live event to air on their service will be MLW Never Say Never 2023 event on July 8th.

Official press release:

New York, NY (May 2, 2023):–FITE announced that Major League Wrestling (MLW) live shows will now be exclusively on FITE+, included as part of your subscription. The promotion joins the rapidly expanding world of live and on demand content on the most exciting and reliable streaming platform. The first MLW event on FITE+ will be Never Say Never ‘23 on July 8th, live from Philadelphia.
“To have MLW’s premium live events available – for no extra cost – on FITE+ gives fans maximum quality and value, which is what we’re both about,” said MLW Founder and CEO Court Bauer. “We’re going to be an amazing tag team and the winners are the fans.”
Champion Alex Hammerstone, John Hennigan, Jacob Fatu, Alex Kane and the Bomaye Fight Club, Delmi Exo, “The World’s Greatest Wonder” Microman and more.
MLW wrestlers have distinct backgrounds with rich cultural connections making their journeys relatable and authentic to viewers. MLW also features the next generation of some of the most iconic wrestling families in the sport including the Samoan Dynasty, the “British Bulldog” Davey Boy Smith Jr. and more.
“Starting a little over 20 years ago, Court has delivered on everything pro-wrestling is meant to be,” said Michael Weber, COO of FITE. “Mixing styles and talents to create something you can’t take your eyes off of. If you think about talent like Satoshi Kojima, CM Punk, Terry Funk or even MJF and Tom Lawlor having spent time at MLW, you know you cannot risk missing out on what comes next.”
FITE+, the Best Value in Combat Sports, is only $7.99 monthly and $69.99 yearly. New customers can enjoy a 7-day free trial. Subscribers get a special selection of premium events from pro wrestling promotions including Game Changer Wrestling, Insane Championship Wrestling and more; as well as leaders in boxing, MMA and grappling and promotions like Triller Fight Club, Fight2Win, SlapFight Championship, Shamrock FC, and the ultra red-hot Bareknuckle Boxing Championship events. The subscription also offers unlimited on-demand access to the entire FITE+ library with over 4000 hours from more than 100 organizations from around the world.

Rocky Romero Comments on NJPW Debuting New NJPW Strong Women’s Championship

As noted before, New Japan Pro Wrestling recently announced that they will be debuting a new NJPW Strong Women’s Championship at their Resurgence 2023 event next month in Long Island, California.

A recent episode of the Comedy Store Wrestling podcast featured Rocky Romero as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Romero’s thoughts on NJPW’s upcoming debut of a new Women’s championship for their NJPW Strong brand.

“Mercedes (Moné) will be there of course (at NJPW Resurgence). Kind of headlining this whole thing with this tournament, the first-ever STRONG Women’s Championship which is like an American championship and I’ve kind of been reading the boards and Twitter and people talking about this and it’s been controversial in the fact of why is New Japan making another Women’s Championship and it just seems like everybody was complaining two years ago that there wasn’t a championship, there wasn’t a division. ‘Where’s the women? Where’s the representation?’ And now we’ve got two championships. One, which is obviously being headlined in Japan which is the IWGP Women’s Championship and now, the New Japan STRONG Women’s Championship so I feel like, we’re trying to give women that representation and give them a great place to show professional wrestling in New Japan Pro-Wrestling so, I don’t really understand where all the controversy is coming from (he laughed). It’s like, why can’t you make fans happy? Come on guys, enjoy yourselves.”

Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com

Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

As noted before, Japanese wrestling legend Yoshihiro Takayama was hospitalized this past April due to him suffering from aspiration pneumonia. Takayama recently provided a health update on Twitter stating that he was discharged from the hospital this past Monday.

FITE TV recently announced that they will be airing this year’s Hana Kimura Tribute Show PINX live on their service on May 23rd.

DEFY Wrestling recently announced that they will be holding a co-promoted event with PROGRESS Wrestling on June 25th in Toronto, Canada. It was also announced that this upcoming event will be part of a doubleheader that night with SMASH Wrestling and Femmes Fatales also holding their own co-promoted event in the same venue in the city.

National Wrestling Alliance talent BLK Jeez, real name Darnell Kittrell, announced that he was recently diagnosed with multiple myeloma cancer. A GoFundMe fundraiser was recently launched to help financially assist BLK Jeez’s medical bills for his battle against cancer.

Indie wrestler Kylie Alexa announced on Twitter that she recently signed an official contract with the NWA.

During Tuesday’s MLW Underground show, Major League Wrestling announced that the next season of their MLW Fusion series will be debuting on May 25th on beIN Sports and their official YouTube channel.

MLW recently announced a new match for the card of their Never Say Never 2023 event on July 8th in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: