MLW announces strategic rights partnership with Wave.TV

By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)

Major League Wrestling issued the following press release on Tuesday to announce its “strategic rights partnership” with Wave.TV.

NEW YORK – Major League Wrestling (MLW®), the fastest growing pro wrestling league in the world, and WAVE.tv, the sports media company for today’s fan, today announced a content, distribution and sales partnership that will increase the volume of MLW coverage across WAVE.tv’s portfolio of media brands, while expanding MLW’s fan base across the world.

The agreement will include the social media distribution of MLW athlete and league content across WAVE.tv’s portfolio of media brands, with an emphasis on WAVE.tv’s combat sports media brand “HAYMAKERS.” WAVE.tv will tap highlights and archive moments from MLW to generate programming catered to its Gen Z and Millennial audience of modern sports fans.

“Wrestling has the most active social media fan base in combat sports, so being able to expand and connect with fans in a deeper sense to share our immersive rivalries, fights and athletes with WAVE.tv is a great next step for us,” said MLW CEO and Founder Court Bauer. “MLW embraces emerging trends and tech and WAVE.tv is a perfect match for the league. We expect this partnership will encourage continued growth of our fan base while also giving WAVE.tv’s 60 million plus followers and subscribers content matched to their interests as well.”

“As the fastest growing pro-wrestling property in the world, we’re incredibly excited to partner with MLW to package and reimagine their amazing content for today’s modern sports fan across WAVE.tv’s portfolio of media brands,” said Daniel Maas, VP or Partnerships for WAVE.tv. “MLW is a welcome addition to our fast-growing Combat Sports vertical — powered by the HAYMAKERS media brand — where we’ve added over 10 new rights partners in 2020, covering boxing, MMA, wrestling and much more.”

The comprehensive nature of this partnership will also enable WAVE.tv and MLW to work with brands to offer new sponsorship inventory within WAVE.tv’s MLW-focused programming.

About WAVE.tv
WAVE.tv is a sports media company for today’s fan. Through a portfolio of media brands, covering a wide array of fandoms and genres, WAVE.tv entertains modern day sports fans with the programming they love, produced for the digital platforms where they spend the most time.

Their programming can be discovered across Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and other core and emerging platforms. Each month, WAVE.tv’s entire portfolio reaches 60 million followers and subscribers (largely Gen-Z and Millennials) with a unique reach of 200 million and generating over 3 billion video views.

Powell’s POV: MLW isn’t running live shows during the pandemic, but they continue to make new relationships and international television deals in the meantime. They have also been busy re-signing Jacob Fatu, Alex Hammerstone, and Richard Holliday.