What started as an idea for a faction storyline with a mystery backer concluded with legendary promotor Don King getting involved with professional wrestling again — with a link to one of his most iconic boxing events.
It started two years ago when Major League Wrestling CEO Court Bauer and his team were kicking around the idea.
They had to wait for the right wrestler and group to employ it.
That presented itself when rising star Alex Kane, after a storyline falling out, was no longer under the wing of Dan Lambert and his MMA-based American Top Team in November 2021.
Kane then started his own on-screen Boymaye Fight Club, which has grown to seven members, to be his new stable that is presented similar to an entourage and team a fighter brings to the ring with them.
“It felt like, well this is it,” Bauer told The Post.
The name pays homage to the 1974 “Rumble in the Jungle” fight in Zaire that King promoted between Muhammed Ali and George Forman where fans chanted “Ali, boymaye!” or “Ali, kill him!”
The chance for a crossover moment was too enticing not to go for it.
“That was the perfect connection,” Bauer said “There was no other option on the table that we felt was so organic and would be such a great native of Don King promoting champions from Ali, to [Mike] Tyson to Kane and we’re like that’s the perfect landing if we can stick the landing.”
They did so Saturday night when King, 91, was revealed as the faction’s mystery backer prior to Kane defeating Alex Hammerstone by submission for the MLW world heavyweight championship at MLW Never Say Never, the company’s first premium live event offering with FITE+.
The man who helped Tyson famously come to WWE for WrestleMania 14 in 1998, pretaped a video promo telling Kane, 29, to get the job done for him against Hammerstone, who had been champion for 21 months.
“I’m the man with the plan at Boymaye,” King said in the video. “Alex Kane, bring that MLW world heavyweight title back to me tonight. Boymaye, boymaye.”
It was the culmination of a relationship the company first started with King early last year that really took shape last April in Dallas the weekend of WrestleMania 39, Bauer said.
He said the reception from King’s side was very positive as he believes there is a shared respect among combat sports promoters.
It was around that time last April that Bauer told Kane that King was on board.
He worried he had spoken too soon to his future champ, as schedules and other circumstances delayed King from actually shooting something for MLW for about a year — having to reassure Kane “it’s gonna happen.”
That didn’t seem to dampen the champ’s excitement.
“When Court told me it was Don King, I was ecstatic,” Kane told The Post. “Don King is a legend and a symbol of black excellence. I wanted to tell the world, but I had to keep it quiet.”
Bauer sees connecting King and his legacy in combat sports as something that legitimized the Kane and Boymaye Fight Club to the audience from a creative perspective and also a cultural perspective.
He hopes doing so as Kane begins his title reign will maximize the awareness of it in the loudest way possible in the industry and makes Kane feel like “the certified franchise.”
“Don is as legit as they come in the sports world to this day to this day,” Kane said.
Bauer said moving forward all options are on the table for King’s involved with the promotion. King, who has greatly slowed down the number of fights he promotes, will not be a weekly presence, but still a reoccurring one.
The hope is to get him and Kane together to shoot and collaborate on some things as MLW’s cable partner BeIN Sports is based out of Miami and King works out of South Florida as well.
“The goal, of course, is to have him there [in person], but having his presence with pretapes with Alex [Kane] those kinds of things. We will always find a way to do it.”
Kane said he hoped he and King “have good chemistry” and wouldn’t mind extending the relationship to working with other fighters he promotes.
“I hope to make some real magic happen during this title reign,” Kane said. “It would be cool to have some crossover with the boxers he’s promoting. If I can pick his brain on promoting tips that would be cool, too.”