Mance Warner Talks Wild MLW Crowds, Working With Jim Cornette

Mance Warner is a hot name on the indies and has applied his craft for just about every promotion out there. He is currently with MLW but it could be time for him to step up and join one of the bigger promotions such as AEW.

Warner spoke to Wrestling Inc. on our WINCLY podcast about that possibility and if MLW restricts him from working for AEW.

"Hell, I don't even know. I would have to look at [my contract] and take a look at it. I'm not sure," said Warner. "I would say that that goes to some agent or something, but you know ol' Mancer ain't got no damn agent."

Warner compared pro wrestling now to 1998 with all the money and spots available, but he said he just wants to work.

"From what I've heard, you can kinda do whatever you want," Warner said about his MLW deal. "I show up and go to work. Whatever goes down goes down, I suppose."

Warner has more of a throwback, old-school gimmick and he talked about translating that for TV while working with MLW.

"I love it out there. They let ol' Mancer be ol' Mancer," stated Warner. "There's so many Goddamn people that know and have been in pro wrestling for so long. You've got Court Bauer. You've got Cornette ? me and Cornette sit there all day talking. They gotta run us off to get us to do what we gotta go do.

"K-Dog [Konnan] is out there. You've got so many people with knowledge that if you're out there and you ain't learning, you're doing something wrong."

Warner said that he and Jim Cornette often talk a lot of old school wrestling and that Cornette is able to put a spin on an idea to turn it into something amazing.

"Cornette's the man. A lot of people wanna talk sh*t and try to stir up stuff, but Cornette f***ing knows everything going on because he's seen everything. So, you sit there and it's a learning tree," said Warner.

"Same thing with Tracy Smothers. When I was starting, you had Tracy Smothers at all of these shows where he would show up, sit down and he would teach you sh*t that you would never learn with anyone else."

Working for WWE was likely a goal for every aspiring wrestler at some point, and Warner was asked if that is still a goal today with so many other options available.

"Nowadays it's literally like 1998-99. You've got GCW?I'm gonna throw them in the mix here. Back in the day you would say that ECW has this thing to it and GCW has this [same] organic feeling to it with the crowds," stated Warner.

"You get the same sh*t at MLW. When we were out in Chicago, that crowd was going ballistic. You've got all of these companies and they've got their feelings to it. The way I look at it is, as long as I go and give feelings like that with these companies, I'm all about it. I'll never say, 'Oh, I'll never do that.' I ain't like that and I kinda live day-by-day.

"I like to do a little bit of everything ? deathmatches, technical, comedy, whatever it may be ? I get bored. I don't wanna get bored and wanna keep going out and do what I gotta do."

Warner is a straight-shooter and he relayed his thoughts on all of the WWE Superstars who have taken to social media to voice their complaints.

"I guess Twitter is like free Goddamn therapy. You get on there and b—h about whatever you want I Goddamn suppose," said Warner.

There are many different goals for wrestlers currently in the business right now, and Warner shared what he wants out of the wrestling business.

"Right now, it's open season out here?. I'm starting to get a little traction. I'm out here in the indies, over at MLW, AAW, AIW, GCW, CZW," said Warner. "There's all these people more concerned about doing this next year or in a year-in-a-half. Well, I'm trying to get paid right now. While they're worried about other things, I'm trying to swipe in and get that "W", get them titles and be the mother****er on indies that's taking over."

Mance Warner can be seen Saturday night as part of MLW's Fusion on BeIn Sports. He will be facing Sami Callihan at MLW Fury Road tonight at the Waukesha County Expo Center.

Mance's full interview with Wrestling Inc was included in a recent episode of our WINCLY podcast. It can be heard via the embedded player at the bottom of this post. In it Mance discusses a dream match with Jon Moxley, Sami Callihan's support, working for MLW, a possible run in AEW, getting bored and more.

You can check out past episodes of the WINCLY here. Subscribe to Wrestling Inc. Audio on iTunes or Google Play. Listen to the show via Spotify here or through TuneIn here.