Scott D'Amore has big goals for Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling.
Coming off of night one of Forged In Excellence, Maple Leaf Pro appears to be a major player in the wrestling space going forward. Led by former TNA President Scott D'Amore, the promotion seems to have big goals for the future, but for right now, they just want to run top quality events and build a large scene through their alliance with Qatar Pro Wrestling and Oceania Pro Wrestling.
"We have to crawl before we can walk and walk before we can run. Our mandate is to run top quality, top produced wrestling shows that give Canadian talent a chance to be featured along with the best in the world and to build a large scene through the PWA." D'Amore said while speaking to Fightful for a new interview. "Currently it’s QPW in Qatar and OPW in Australia. We’re open to and look for like-minded partners where the mindsets align, and to be able to build a worldwide platform for talent to perform on to be able to build their portfolio. Being a national wrestling company is key for us. Canada hasn’t had that in years. Having something that is truly Canadian and and truly our own, and the idea would eventually to be able to feature talent from BC (British Columbia) to Newfoundland, and everything in-between. Would we look at running other places? Obviously, Ontario is going to be a core, it was with the original Maple Leaf Wrestling. There are great opportunities. We’ve had people reach out from the West Coast to the Maritimes and we’ll evaluate that with time. We are looking to get out there and looking to see what we can do as we grow. I think we’ll be judged in one year, two years, five years, with not just the great content we put out featuring Canadian talent, but what type of launching pad we are for careers. I want the next generation of Canadian talent to have, not just the opportunity in the past, but an even better one than what bobby Roode, Eric Young, Traci Brooks, Gail Kim, and so many of the people had. It was such a struggle to get noticed in Canada. We’re very proud of what Border City Wrestling and other companies like it were able to do. Our attachment to Christian, Edge, all these people who performed here on their way up, we want to continue that, but do it on a grander scale. If we can use the changes in modern wrestling -- back in the 90s and early 2000s, it was television or nothing. Now, with the internet, social media, streaming, it opens up so many opportunities. The mandate is very clear. Canadian based. Canadian themed wrestling featuring great Canadians and fostering and developing them, and doing that by featuring wrestlers from around the world, both at the very peak of their in-ring career like Takeshita and mixing in a good group of veterans that can provide that experience and mentor some of the guys."
D'Amore went on to say that fans can reach out to him if they pay for the pay-per-view and don't end up liking it.
"If you plop down $30, you buy the pay-per-view, and you watch those two nights and you don’t like it, then reach out. If you don’t think you got your money’s worth, we’ll refund it."
Elsewhere in the interview, D'Amore talked about the importance of companies working together in wrestling. Learn more about those comments here.
Night two of Maple Leaf Pro Forged In Excellence will stream live on Triller TV.
Fans can check out Fightful's full interview with Scott D'Amore in the video linked at the top of this article.