All-Star Wrestling Australia Promoter Speaks on Charlie Haas No-Show
The All Star Wrestling affiliated ‘Mitch and Alex Show’ has provided those who have tuned in behind the scenes insight on the challenges that come with running a wrestling promotion and episode number four of the podcast was no different, with co-host and All-Star promoter Mitch speaking on the scheduled appearances of former 3 time WWE Tag Team champion and Superstar Charlie Haas, who unfortunately did not appear, sparking concerns in the international wrestling community for his welfare. “People thought he’d passed away” Mitch explained. “We were told he hadn’t passed away, he just hadn’t boarded his flight”.
Charlie was booked by All-Star Wrestling to appear on a three day tour in October 2022 for the promotion, including Padstow in Sydney followed by two dates in regional New South Wales. Co-Host Alex gave the perspective of a front row fan at the Padstow show, the first night Haas was supposed to appear for the promotion and compete against their champion Ryan Eagles with the championship up for grabs. He stated All-Star commissioner Keegan Brettle came out at the beginning of the show to explain that Charlie Haas had not boarded his flight bound for Sydney and consequently would not appear for the promotion, before he was replaced in the championship match with Tyson Gibbs.
“The Charlie Haas story I think we explained well publicly at the time” Mitch says to co-host Alex and guest Aries. For context, All-Star wrestling released two statements via their social media channels at the time of the no-show, which commented on the initial situation and then again once some more information was available, but Mitch provided insight into the logistics, which required travel from Sydney on Saturday to get to regional NSW for the final two shows of the tour. “We sent our people to the airport to pick him up for this three day tour, and he just didn’t turn up”. The alarm bells started to ring for his chaperones, “Well where is he? maybe he’s stuck in customs, we’re trying to get in touch with his agent, couldn’t get in touch with anyone, then we were told he’ll be there but he’ll be there tomorrow, which would have been the Saturday.” It appears there was scope to accommodate this if Charlie had arrived and the remaining two appearances could have been honoured. “There were a group of wrestlers travelling with Haas on the Saturday and we were waiting on information on whether he was turning up or not but he never did”. This meant matches scheduled between Haas and Morgan Rose, as well as a match with Aries, would also be cancelled at short notice.
As for the reasons for his no show, Mitch is still unsure exactly why, “the reasons were scattered it went from a mental health issue, to a substance issue to he legitimately missed the plane so I don’t know what happened”. Mitch and All-Star are still out of pocket from the booking and had difficulty connecting with Haas post incident, “he just disappeared for four or five months because he obviously owes me money we paid him a deposit, and flights as well which we couldn’t cancel”.
Mitch said. “You know we were out thousands of dollars and we keep asking Charlie’s people when we’re getting this money refunded”. Charlie Haas did indeed disappear from professional wrestling for a number of months, with cagematch stating he didn’t compete again until March 2023 and his social media presence also showed similar signs of radio silence in the months post October 2022 until he commenced competing again.
Understandably, the entire situation left Mitch second guessing the use of fly-in talents for All-Star shows. “it was just a really negative thing and I was actually paranoid the next time I used a fly in because so much can go wrong with the fly in talent”. Fortunately for fans of the promotion Mitch has had positive experiences since that has alleviated his concerns, “but we’ve used Billie Mac who flies down (from QLD) and Ultimo dragon as well so my anxiety over that is now gone, but it was a big concern”. Mitch continued, “I feel bad every time we’ve got to let down the all star fans who spend their hard earned money and people who were excited to see Charlie Haas and we couldn’t deliver it unfortunately”.
You will find the Mitch and Alex show episode four here and the Charlie Haas story is spoken about at approximately the 53:00 mark.
