Major League Wrestling doesn’t take a holiday as it brings a Fourth of July episode of Fusion from Atlanta. Among the big highlights for the episode is the much-anticipated debut of LaBron Kozone, who signed with the company in March. MLW’s head Court Bauer called the 33-year-old a franchise wrestler during the acquisition announcement.
It has been a long time coming, I must say. MLW puts on a great production…,” Kozone said of the match. “It was the first time I wrestled in Atlanta in quite some time. It has been a few years since I had the privilege to perform out there. I wasn’t sure how the people were going to respond to me, but that crowd at Center Stage felt very special.”
Adding to the significance of the evening was that Alan Angels is his opponent. Someone Kozone also respects.
I was probably one of the first promotions to give him an opportunity to perform outside of his home state of Georgia back in 2017,” Kozone, who works with the next generation of talent at the Five Star Pro Wrestling Academy. “I got to wrestle him in AEW in one of my first matches there during the pandemic. Now we meet again. He lives only 30 minutes from me, which is crazy. He just moved up here to the Carolinas. Now I get to see him more often. He was just at our training school yesterday. He got to wrestle one of my guys. He is a phenomenal guy. I wouldn’t find a better choice for my first match.”
The veteran wrestler takes pride in passing on his vast knowledge to others. This mindset of constantly giving back has carried with him through the years. In all, Kozone estimates to have taught at some point more than a thousand young men and women in the ring. For him it isn’t just learning the fundamentals but also showing them how to protect themselves.
From there, I’ve had people go through the process of doing what we do and ended up having their first matches. To me, that’s a big victory,” he continued. “They are getting booked at different promotions. That’s awesome. Then they are wrestling in different states. That’s incredible. Then they are getting tryouts for WWE. Not only are they getting tryouts at a young age like Je’Von Evans, who had a tryout at age 18 and ended up getting signed, they are thriving. I did my tryout for that same company. While I was there, Jackson Drake came up to me and gave me a big hug and said, ‘They just offered me a full-time contract to be on NXT.’ I’m like, ‘Wow, my heart is full right there.’”
“Then I have a kid who used to drive five hours to train with me, and he graduated from my program. Now he goes by Mr. Elegance and is in TNA now and doing well. One of my first-ever graduates, Griff Garrison, him and Marcus Kross did well in Ring of Honor, and now he is still doing his things in AEW. It’s cool because I still get to see and hear from them and all these guys. To me, it’s heartwarming to know I make a difference. Not only that I love MLW for the opportunity they’ve given me, but also the opportunity they’ve given my students already. They are already taking recommendations from our training school Five Star Pro Wrestling. I have a lot. If you all think the guys that you know from my school are talented, wait until you see the guys from my school coming down now.”
Kozone took many important ideas from his WWE tryout in January. He goes as far to say that he wishes everybody who loves wrestling and wants to pursue it could experience something like that.
Where you’re surrounded by some of the greatest wrestlers of all-time,” he said. “They are passionate about sharing knowledge. All the coaches there at the Performance Center, I admire watching their work, whether it’s wrestling or training. Then you have people like John Cena just popping up listening to your promos and freely giving you critiques. There are a couple of big things. It’s being able to go under pressure and thrive and the other thing is your attitude. Attitude is a huge thing over there. That’s my biggest takeaway. You always have to have that positive attitude because they have to see you every day…I really want to bring this all to the table when I’m at MLW.”
Now under MLW, Kozone is ready to truly showcase his abilities. His journey all led up to this. And even though “The Ring Warrior” comes with impressive credentials and a strong background, he appreciates soaking up whatever knowledge the company’s biggest names want to give him. Kozone enjoyed sharing the screen with the legendary Satoshi Kojima. The vignette that aired on saw the former MLW Heavyweight Champion teaching the newcomer the art of executing his trademark lariat. This created fun visuals of practicing the execution of the move on a tree and caught fire on social media.
It was amazing. Kojima is somebody I have a lot of respect for,” Kozone said. “When I got the phone call that I was going to be working with Kojima, I was like, ‘Ah, yes. I knew it was going to be gold before it was ever going to happen.’ That shows the creativity of MLW. I feel like it’s being slept on. I hope more moments like that get recognition and more people get to tune in for Saturday nights for MLW.”
MLW Fusion, Saturdays, 6:05/5:05c on YouTube, 9/8c on Veeps, and 10/9c on beIN Sports