Dusty Rhodes inspired wrestling promoter to return to Tampa Bay

ST. PETERSBURG ― In 2006, as part of the WWE writing team, Dusty Rhodes and Court Bauer had a meeting with then-CEO Vince McMahon that left them confused.

McMahon, who also played an onscreen version of himself, wanted to wrestle God. The one from the Bible. “Our marching orders were to fill in the episodes leading up to this bill,” Bauer said. After McMahon left the room, “with this half-smile, Dusty says, ‘Thank God he’s paying me a lot of money.’”

Bauer, who’d once run his own promotion that held shows in Florida, said Rhodes then tempted him, by wondering aloud what it would be like to quit and promote their own event in Tampa Bay, where Rhodes was the biggest star in the 1970s for the defunct Championship Wrestling from Florida.

Rhodes — real name Virgil Runnels, a longtime resident of the Tampa area — died in 2015, but Bauer has not forgotten that dream.

Now head of the Major League Wrestling promotion, Bauer will hold a pay-per-view show on March 29 at The Coliseum in St. Petersburg. The event features a main match between two teams of four fighting inside a “War Chamber,” which is two rings surrounded by a cage.

It’s also the first wrestling card Bauer, 45, has held in Tampa Bay since again starting his own promotion. The show is dedicated to his old friend Rhodes.

“It’s full circle,” he said.

Major League Wrestling is firmly established as a promotion. It has distribution in 60 countries, a television and pay-per-view deal and internationally known industry stars like Matt Riddle, Davey Boy Smith Jr. and Mistico.

“We are commercially viable,” Bauer said.

Bauer said he owes the success in part to Rhodes, who once gave him advice while dunking cookies in beer. (More on that later.)

“I never wanted to be a wrestler but always wanted to be in the wrestling business,” Bauer said. “I wanted to work behind the scenes.”

He first pursued that dream as an 18-year-old political science major at McDaniel College in Maryland, where he won a contest asking fans to serve as matchmaker for a night by sending in the wrestling card they’d like to see.

“I get to the show and it’s a totally different card,” Bauer said, laughing. “It’s not anything I presented … but I later started harassing them to let me do something behind the scenes and they finally let me.”

He helped construct the ring and eventually moved into website and poster design. That led to making connections with other promoters, who hired him to scout American talent for a Japanese wrestling company.

By 2002, Bauer thought he was ready to run a promotion and founded Major League Wrestling. The third show was held in Fort Lauderdale, with a main event featuring Rhodes vs. fellow Florida legend Terry Funk.

“I didn’t think I had to do anything else but just put that match on and the world would come and see it,” Bauer said. “This was in Florida, where Dusty was hottest in his prime.”

The venue held 1,500 but only 500 fans showed up. “Dusty peeks through the curtain, wearing these granny glasses at the tip of his nose,” Bauer laughed. “He goes, ‘This isn’t going to be a good show.’”

But he and Funk invited Bauer back to their hotel later that night. It was there, while dunking cookies into a frothy beer, that Rhodes — who had overseen storylines for numerous promotions while also starring in the ring — gave Bauer advice.

“He said that every promoter, from the most successful to the least, is going to have these nights,” Bauer said. “But it’s the question of why it turned out this way that you have to answer. And then he walked me through promoting and understanding it.”

One issue — he didn’t market enough.

“I needed Dusty barnstorming,” Bauer said. “We didn’t have him doing local media.”

Another problem was Bauer was catering to the diehard fans and not offering enough for the casual fan. And he was trying to do too much himself.

“Dusty said you need a great team, great roster and a game plan and explained how to get those,” Bauer said.

The promotion shuttered in 2004. A year later, Bauer joined WWE, where he worked beside Rhodes, and his wrestling education continued.

“Dusty taught me so much about the business,” Bauer said, “and really gave me the fundamentals: the political elements, the economic elements, the creative elements.”

As for that storyline with God, it culminated when Vince and Shane McMahon took on Shawn Michaels and God, portrayed by a stage spotlight. The McMahons won.

Bauer left WWE in 2007 and reformed Major League Wrestling as a podcast network covering the industry. Rhodes went on to work for NXT, which is WWE’s developmental promotion based out of Orlando.

“I was so happy he got to go full circle and go home to the Sunshine State,” Bauer said.

In 2017, Bauer rebranded Major League Wrestling as a promotion again. It’s been successful this second time thanks in part to the lessons learned from the WWE Hall of Fame grappler.

“I look at the show in Dusty’s town in a kind of a sentimental way,” Bauer said. “I owe Dusty so much.”

If you go

Major League Wrestling will hold its “War Chamber” pay-per-view at 7 p.m. on March 29 at The Coliseum, 535 Fourth Ave. N., St. Petersburg. Tickets range from $14-$65 and can be purchased through mlw.com.