David Sahadi on His Departure From MLW & Issues with MLW Owner Court Bauer

As noted before, Major League Wrestling recently released Executive Producer David Sahadi over conflict of interest issues related to Sahadi recently also joining and working for Real American Freestyle Wrestling.

A recent episode of Behind The Lens podcast featured co-host Sahadi’s thoughts about his recent departure from MLW and his issues with MLW owner Court Bauer over his belief that Bauer likes to feel as if you’re loyal to him and him only for the cause of the rift between the two.

“Everything in that reporting is true, and there are different perspectives on different things… I got the call about two weeks ago. It was on a Friday, and I wanna say before I get to the details of the conversation with Court (Bauer) that it was a great phone call. I mean, I knew it was coming. I’m not sure if Court knew that I knew and it was a great phone call and we left on a great term where Court’s just like, ‘Hey, you made this easy.’ I said, ‘Court, I understand…’ I first sensed it was coming when I worked for Scott D’Amore, Maple Leaf Wrestling. They had a show in July, and Tim Wahlberg who is a Hall of Fame director… he is Scott’s guy and he had a conflict with a baseball game. He also directs the Baltimore Orioles games so, I told Scott I would do that show because Scott’s a friend and I’m not sure where Maple Leaf Wrestling is going right now. That might be his last televised show. I don’t think so, and I asked Court if we could use footage for Alexander Hammerstone in the show because Hammerstone was part of Scott’s show, and I wanna use the entrance when he made his return to MLW and Court’s response on email was, ‘So you’re working for them right now?’ So right then, I knew it struck a nerve with Court because Court likes to feel as though you’re loyal to him and to him only, even though I’m a freelance worker and I made it clear to Court that I would treat MLW as if they were my exclusive company. But, this is Scott D’Amore, friend, and this is not United States and it’s not a competitor to MLW so as a friend, Scott D’Amore, who I love — great leader. I worked with him for many years but I knew him as a friend first. I was doing that for Scott and I knew that Court didn’t like that. He was unhappy. But, we were also in this two-month period where MLW does not have any live shows. They were off in July and August and the next live show is (September) 13th, Fightland in Dallas. So that was the first sign…”

Sahadi also gave his thoughts about him taking an offer from Eric Bischoff to work with Real American Freestyle Wrestling during the two month period when MLW did not hold any live events and Bauer’s negative reaction when he told him about it.

“When news got out that I had been working with Eric Bischoff for Real American Freestyle, I heard from sources inside MLW, that really incensed Court Bauer. He thought I was betraying him… I know that that irked Court. Because maybe he thought that I was treating him as number two. In my mind, it’s like, I thought I could do both because MLW is off for July and August and that’s when Eric needed me the most. So maybe Court knew that, you know, I would not be able to give him my 100 percent creativity, energy and everything for MLW with this on the plate. But to me, it happened (at) such a great time when MLW was kind of dark so, the timing of me giving it my 120 percent for R.A.F. couldn’t have happened at a better time.”

Sahadi also gave his thoughts about how he was led to believe by Bauer that his release from the company was due to a business-related financial reason but he does not believe that to be the real reason.

“He (Court Bauer) led me to believe that it’s something with finance. That was the only misunderstanding there. Not that it was a conflict of interest. He never brought that up in the phone call, that me working for R.A.F. was a conflict of interest for him. He just said he had to answer to a Board, and that the Board looks at numbers and I was one of the higher paid guys that was an independent contractor. Not the highest. One of the higher-paid guys, and that it was a business and financial decision. But I had a feeling that it wasn’t, and obviously by their statement, it was based on conflict of interest but, again, they’re very complimentary in that statement and I’m very complimentary of them. I think MLW’s a great product. I think I’ll be working with them again in the future.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com