MLW owner talks Tessa Blanchard, Masha Slamovich signings: 'I believe in forgiveness'

Its no secret (MLW) has brought in some big names into the company over the last few years with wrestlers like Killer Kross, Scarlett Bordeaux, Austin Aries, Trevor Lee, Shotzi Blackheart and several others being on the roster at one point or another.

Two other notable names that caught the attention of the pro wrestling world this year bolstered MLWs womens division – Tessa Blanchard and Masha Slamovich (known in MLW simply as Masha).

Blanchard, a third-generation pro wrestler, has vehemently denied racism allegations for years even as shes been featured as a top player in several promotions. Slamovich addressed domestic abuse allegations in September 2025, apologizing for her actions in what she described as a "mutually destructive relationship."

MLW first announced Blanchards signing in September of this year and she was initially planned for Fightland. Some confusion pushed back her debut to Saturday Night SuperFight, which takes place this weekend and can be seen on Veeps.

MLW owner Court Bauer addressed Blanchards signing in an interview with OutKick Dropkick.

"There are things in this business that happen that are just unique and I really can't talk about it other than saying, ultimately what happened was you had about a 60-day delay on it and instead of her debuting in Charleston for a TV taping, she's arriving at our pay per view, which is a critically awesome moment for it to happen. So, it worked out pretty damn good for us and we're thrilled, CMLL's thrilled and Tessa's thrilled. I think that's all that matters.

"But for Tessa, she's been an incredible part of the CMLL roster, and for her to come over is a huge honor and she was actually supposed to be a part of the original relaunch of MLW in 2017. We had taped stuff of her training and, again, it was one of those weird things where just the timing didn't work and it didn't happen. She was gonna be like one of the cornerstones of MLW at that point in time of our new era talents. And then here we are. That was 2017. Here we are 2026, end of 2026, almost 10 years later. And seeing all of this incredible success she's had in Mexico and she's had elsewhere and it's to come back and do this finally. It's about a decade in the making. So finally, it will not be denied, just like her undeniable. she's gonna be here."

Bauer told Wrestling Observer Radio he was a believer in "second, third chances" for people.

OutKick Dropkick asked Bauer if he share the same sentiment for Slamovich.

"I believe in forgiveness," he said. "As a Christian, I believe in forgiveness. I think we're so quick to condemn and everyone gets executed and then they're just on the island of irrelevancy. They are to be forgotten. They are shunned forever, and there are definitely people in this world, in this business, that should be. And there's people in this business that could be, but there are a lot of people that make bad mistakes, terrible mistakes, and they repent, and they realize their errors and their things that they could have done differently. They're young people, they're living in a time where they're just on the go constantly, and then they get to settle down and they get to have perspective. But you gotta have the ability to see that and then you have a conversation with those folks, you see where they're at, and I'm not saying one person in particular, but my approach has always been, yeah, you know, give