Court Bauer discusses his long-term goals for the MLW women's featherweight division including the potential of an all-women show.
As Major League Wrestling continues to grow, its women's division is about to have an additional layer of importance added to it at Kings of Colosseum on Friday, May 13 when the inaugural MLW Women's Featherweight Champion is crowned in a match between Taya Valkyrie and Holidead.
Speaking in a new interview with Sean Ross Sapp, Court Bauer explained why the women's division is the featherweight division instead of a middleweight division and provided the first look at the new Women's Championship belt.
“The first champion will be crowned in Philadelphia. Taya Valkyrie versus Holidead,” Court says. “I think a lot of people think we’re having a cutesy name for the featherweights, that’s an actual weight class in boxing and MMA. There’s bantamweight, strawweight, featherweight, there’s all these, welterweight. We did that because we want to have multiple weight class divisions, just like we have with the men. It’s not trying to say or trying to define women by weight. It’s just in fighting we try to lean into the combat sport end.
"We have a middleweight division, we have an openweight division, we have a heavyweight division. Maybe one day we’ll have a super heavyweight division. I don’t know. We’ve got Big Juicy now,” he continued. “For the women, we wanted to have its own weight class and the featherweight class at that. People never asked, ‘Well, what is the weight go up to?’ 205 pounds. So we could then, theoretically, the middleweight division is right there, too. We can go up to 205 with that. It’s an opportunity to give it its own title instead of a Women’s Middleweight title. We wanted it to have its own shine.”
Court also revealed that he had the championship belt made by Wildcat Belts and explained that it is detailed with the goddess of war on each side as well as diamonds and feathers.
A huge part of the growth of the women's division has been the addition of Dave Prazak to oversee the division. Dave has always championed women's wrestling behind the scenes and provided opportunities for women through the SHIMMER promotion based out of Chicago, Illinois.
Court also revealed that he would like to hire Cathy Corino (Allison Danger) to help with the division as well. Danger was recently released by WWE from a behind-the-scenes role in NXT.
“Dave Prazak has been awesome in overseeing the division, said Court. “He’s a visionary in women’s wrestling. He’s opened the door for so many incredibly talented women forever. So for him to be a part of the company and help us with that, I couldn’t ask for a better person to shepherd that in. I think Cathy Corino and Dave Prazak would be my draft picks. Cathy at the time was tied up with some WWE stuff. We’re very happy to have Dave here and I have full confidence and trust in Dave. He is the one who really works in spearheading this and he’s done a great job. He’s emailing in the middle of the night, he emails in the morning. He’s really so invested in his work. We’re excited and pumped to see this division kicked.”
Bauer says he has yet to have any conversations with Cathy Corino, due to her recent obligations to WWE.
“That’s something that’s been brought up, honestly, internally, but we haven’t reached out to her. She’s awesome. We have big fans of her in the company. So her name has come up repeatedly. I’ve had to tell them, ‘Guys, we can’t. I’d love to reach out. She’s with WWE.’ But, yeah, we’re certainly interested in having a conversation.”
In regards to a potential all-women event, Cortez that the women deserve their own show and part of media rights discussions include live specials and opportunities such as a potential show like this.
Well, yeah. That’s the endgame for us. When we have our media rights discussions, the primary series, it’s talking about live specials, then the offshoot opportunities. We want to be able to do a women’s show. We think it’s very possible,” Court says. “They deserve their own time, not to have to share. I’d love to have it. I think it would be an awesome show. I think it would have a distinctly different feel to it. I think it’s just a matter of a partner to support it and if we have a partner that wants it, man, how many hours do you want?”
MLW will Crown its inaugural Women's Featherweight Champion in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Friday, May 13. You can purchase tickets for the event at this link. We will have full coverage of the event after it concludes and we will report on who becomes the inaugural champion once that information is available.
