Paul Walter Hauser has walked away from Major League Wrestling. The Emmy-winning actor announced on Instagram on Sunday that he said goodbye to the promotion late last week, and he made a point of shutting down any theory about why before it could start.
“My decision was simply rooted in creative differences,” Hauser wrote. “The truest, & least sexy, answer.”
He closed the lengthy post with a warning for anyone tempted to spin his exit: “If anyone cares to bad mouth me & or rewrite my contributions to MLW, I have receipts & I have friends in high places.”
Hauser Lists What He Did Off Camera
Hauser was blunt about his in-ring output. “I don’t think any of my best matches were in MLW, but I did the best I could with what I had at the time,” he wrote.
He then itemized the work fans never saw: landing MLW coverage in the Wall Street Journal, getting clips onto Jimmy Kimmel Live, bringing snacks for craft service and empanadas for catering, sending his videographer Caleb Wall out to help a crew member buy missing equipment, and pitching the product “to anyone in Hollywood who would listen.”
That last line carries weight. MLW named Hauser an executive producer in early 2025 and, in the same announcement reported by Deadline, signed with his management company, Artists First, to pursue television and streaming distribution and licensing deals. The role drew questions even then: a PWInsider reader asked Mike Johnson in September 2025 how Hauser wrestling for ROH, appearing in AEW and carrying the PROGRESS title benefited MLW. Johnson argued those appearances could raise MLW’s profile if fans followed him back.
MLW’s distribution has grown since, with a weekly MLW Fusion partnership with VEEPS and a free streaming deal on Tubi. Hauser signed off by plugging VEEPS, Prime Video, Tubi and YouTube. His exit lands days before MLW Saturday Night SuperFight on November 7, the company’s first pay-per-view in seven years.
From Battle Riot To Turning On Paul London
Hauser credited Sami Callihan with introducing him to MLW founder Court Bauer, who gave him his opening at Battle Riot VI in June 2024. He said he learned in-ring work there, along with producing and directing backstage segments.
The moments he’s proudest of include diving off a ladder onto BRG at Battle Riot and “turning on my former tag partner & mentor, Paul London,” the former WWE star who trained him. In the storyline, that split played out at Battle Riot VIII in January, where Hauser dumped London to the floor and later hit a flip dive onto him as London lay on a table.
Paul Walter Hauser's SENTON at BATTLE RIOT!
Not everyone in the locker room was a fan of his path. BRG told Fightful’s In The Weeds podcast in March 2025 that Hauser got “a free ride just because he has a name attached to him.”
Hauser thanked Bauer’s crew and singled out Minoru Suzuki, Tom Lawlor and Trevor Lee for teaching him. He said he’ll miss Ikuro Kwon, Beastman, Josh Bishop, Donovan Dijak, Killer Kross, Doc Gallows, the Coffeys and Wolfgang.
Fightful reports Hauser last worked MLW’s Fusion tapings in September. He isn’t leaving the ring, though. He held the PROGRESS Proteus Championship from April 2025 until October 25, when Dijak beat him in a no-disqualification match at PROGRESS Chapter 199 in London.
