WWE is just 13 days away from its seventh Crown Jewel PLE. The company is headed to Australia for the first-ever Crown Jewel held outside of Saudi Arabia in a continuation of the lucrative 10-year deal between the Kingdom and the Stamford-based promotion. This comes ahead of the first-ever Royal Rumble and WrestleMania events in the Arab nation, which continue to draw heat from fans and others in the industry.
Court Bauer worked with WWE’s Creative Writing Team from 1999-2002. He launched Major League Wrestling later that year as an alternative to WWE and the original ECW. The promotion quit running events in 2004, then Bauer returned to work for WWE from 2005-2007. He kept the name alive via the MLW Podcast Network, and brought the brand back in 2017 as a wrestling company.
MLW has had working relationship with several promotions over the years, and there had been WWE Network-related rumors on Bauer’s promotion and former employer but nothing ever came of the talk. MLW fired an anti-trust lawsuit against WWE on January 11, 2022, accusing the largest wrestling company in the world of poaching talent, and interfering in TV/streaming deals or negotiations between the NY-based promotion and certain networks. The suit was dismissed in February 2023 due to insufficient facts to support the allegations, but at the last minute, MLW filed an amended lawsuit to accuse WWE of interfering in its deal with Reelz, which reached an agreement with Peacock that February, which forced a black-out of MLW programming on the Reelz live feed due to the network’s pre-existing exclusivity agreement with WWE.
The WWE vs. MLW legal battle came to an end on December 11, 2023 when a settlement was reached, not long after deciding to restructure the company and overhaul its offices. MLW’s anti-trust lawsuit against WWE was then dismissed with prejudice on December 26, and two months later a TKO 10-K filing revealed that the case was settled for $20 million.
WWE-Saudi Relationship Knocked At MLW Event
WWE’s Red Hat Guy aka Rick Achberger was ringside at the NYTEX Sports Centre in North Richland Hills, Texas earlier this month for MLW’s seventh Fightland event, which included their sixth Fury Road show. MLW aired Fury Road VII this past Saturday as a YouTube special, and on BeIN Sports USA as a TV special.
Danny McBride is a lifelong wrestling fan, and owner of the Don Gato tequila brand launched last year with his wife. The Eastbound & Down star recently announced a unique sponsorship deal with MLW, which led to the storyline arrival of a Don Gato character, as well as advertisements with McBride and actor Steve Little, who portrayed Stevie Janowski in Eastbound & Down, the sidekick to McBride’s Kenny Powers character.
Major League Wrestling will debut in Charleston, SC on Thursday, November 20 from the historic Charleston Music Hall with a special event titled, MLW x Don Gato: Lucha de los Muertos. Touted as a “first-of-its-kind live broadcast lucha libre event,” the event will air live via the MLW YouTube channel and beIN Sports. The Don Gato character has had a limited role until now when he made a big impact during Fury Road VI on Saturday night.
Cesar Duran is a sinister but now beloved face of the MLW storylines, portrayed by actor Luis Fernandez-Gil. Duran opened Saturday’s taped Fury Road special with Vice President of Wrestling Operations Salina de la Renta, after an introduction by Jesus Rodriguez, the former Ricardo Rodriguez of WWE.
Duran welcomed the crowd with a few words in Spanish, and mentioned how they helped sell the venue out. He continued and seemingly took a shot at WWE for the alliance with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, despite not naming the competition.
“You have sold us out. You have once again did it! You love your Major League Wrestling, and Major League Wrestling loves you. We have a legacy in the making tonight, and when some other company packed up their big show and shipped it off to Saudi Arabia, to take up blood money [fans boo], we… we come here with the real deal, right here in Texas. [fans cheer] And tonight, we owe a special thanks to a man that has brought the finest, the coolest, tequila in the world, and he brought it here to this arena. So, let’s raise our voices for Don Gato! ‘Don Gato! Don Gato!’ It’s tequila that once you taste it, you will not like any other one. Trust me. Now… are you guys ready for lucha tonight?,” Cesar Duran said in the video below.
“Major League Wrestling loves you!”
~ MLW President @RealCesarDuranWatch NOW â–¶ï¸ https://t.co/VvTTmBp4Qhpic.twitter.com/EsEq2tR3wv
— MLW (@MLW) September 28, 2025
Salina de la Renta then reminded everyone: MLW doesn’t play soft or safe, they choose violence. Duran led the crowd in a MLW chant to wrap the intro.
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