Major League Wrestling (MLW) announced a partnership with Veeps earlier this week, marking the latest free streaming platform the promotion will appear on – joining YouTube and beIN Sports.
“MLW Fusion” will debut on Veeps Saturday with a heavy lineup of professional wrestling without fans needing an additional streaming service that could hit them harder in the wallet than a chair shot from Killer Kross.
MLW CEO Court Bauer emphasized the importance of remaining free and open to the public in an interview with FOX Business, contrasting the experience faced by NFL fans.
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Court Bauer, founder of Major League Wrestling, at an event. (Major League Wrestling/Fox News)
“I’m a huge sports fan, so as we’ve seen the evolution of streaming play out, I feel like you’re paying a little bit of tolls when you go from game to game,” Bauer said. “You might need this subscription to follow this game and this subscription to get this game and now you need a certain subscription to get this exclusive Christmas game. Then you start looking at what it costs. It’s not $9.99 a month anymore. Some of these services are $30 a month. And that’s OK, Netflix is 30 years old (on some packages), ESPN is 30 years old and you start watching it and it’s like, I think we We live in an age of subscription fatigue where you can subscribe to toothpaste and exotic candy bars from Japan and I get them every month and I think everyone is starting to look at their bill and say, “Yeah, I think I’m a little over all these subscriptions.”
“So I’ve always thought that YouTube was kind of at the epicenter of fan access to content, one way or another. I think what we’re doing with Veeps is unlocking now a free window to watch on their huge platform and that’s going to be huge for us. It’s going to be great for them. It’s going to be a huge success. So, I think when you have that kind of disruptive force where we can be the league of challengers and say, yeah, no paywall, we’re giving it to you for free, It means a lot when times are tough for a lot of people So to be able to watch wrestling every Saturday reliably and not look at your bill and make you pay for it, I think that will be well received From our point of view, we always want to super serve the fans, give them our best product, give them our best action and give it to them at the best price and the best value.
Bauer said the partnership with Veeps opens new avenues for MLW to attract fans.
Veeps was founded by Good Charlotte members Joel and Benji Madden, and Live Nation later purchased a majority stake in the streaming platform in 2021. Pro wrestling fans can claim a “free ticket” to the show before watching it.
“It’s huge for us,” Bauer told FOX Business. “We’ve really been building over the last two years and looking at things globally. It’s a huge strategic opportunity that we’re opening up with this partnership. Live Nation is the world leader in live entertainment, of course in ticketing with Ticketmaster, in tour logistics, their investment in arenas is massive, in merchandise, sponsorships and marketing. We’ve seen tremendous growth over the last two years with our massive deal with Panini trading cards and have sold out every show since January 2024.
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MLW and Veeps will collaborate on a weekly show and other marketing promotions. (MLW / Unknown)
“So this partnership is just going to boost MLW in multiple ways.”
Tuesday’s press release made mention of how the two parties would “infuse music culture into future events, creating crossover moments connecting wrestling audiences with artists from the metal, country, punk, hardcore and alternative communities.”
Bauer said this idea has been in discussion for about a year.
“This is something we’ve been looking at and discussing with them for almost a year. We started doing it almost a year ago with Joel and Benji Madden, who started Veeps in 2017 and of course Live Nation bought it around 2021,” he said. “Paul Walter Houser, Brian Walsh and I, we all sat down with the Veeps team and Live Nation to see what were the opportunities here for what you’re doing with this platform, what you’re doing with Live Nation and your touring and what you’re doing with your production and of course with all your great artists? And we asked ourselves, what’s the synergy there? What’s the crossover opportunity?
“Pro wrestling has always been sort of ingrained in the fabric of America. You think back to the ’80s. You have MTV and wrestling, it was like peanut butter and jelly. It went together really well. In pop culture in general, you can look back to the black and white days of television with Gorgeous George on television. So, there was always a unique crossover appeal of wrestling. So now we’re looking at how do we do that? What could be the opportunities? to integrate what Live Nation and Veeps do with musicians, with big artists, touring artists and MLW? So there’s a whole wave of opportunities that we’re exploring from there, I think there could be some really exciting things.
“Now MLW is working with the largest live entertainment and ticketing company in the world. The potential of this partnership is simply limitless.”
Pro wrestling fans who might be introduced to the company through Veeps are in for a show.
The MLW roster includes some well-known names that may already be familiar to the average wrestling audience, like Kross, Bishop Dyer, Alex HammerstoneDonovan Dijak, Shotzi, Scarlett Bordeaux, Trevor Lee, Austin Aries and others. But the company has also incorporated its partnerships with venues like Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) and Stardom into its talent pool.
Killer Kross in Major League Wrestling’s Battle Riot. (MLW / Unknown)
“We’re starting this Saturday with a new season and it’s free. It’s free on YouTube, it’s free on Veeps and it’s going to be a two-hour special,” Bauer said. “We have Austin Aries against Trevor Lee. Killer Kross, our heavyweight champion of the world, will be in action and at a press conference with Danny McBride and yours truly will have a small press conference. We have a great women’s division with Shotzi and Priscilla Kelly. They will be fighting this weekend. Bishop Dyer, some of you remember him as Baron Corbin from WWE, he is one half of the world tag team champions. He will be in action.
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“It’s just a who’s who of our show from Japan to Mexico with the biggest stars here in the United States. We’ll kick off live and in color this Saturday night, at 6:05 p.m. ET on YouTube, on Veeps and beIN Sports all night. But on Saturday, we’re going to plant our flag and make it big.”
