Paul Walter Hauser Talks MLW’s Battle Riot, Title Hopes, and Best Heel Turn of All Time

Next week MLW will invade Los Angeles for Battle Riot VII, and the event’s gotten so popular that that MLW had to recently shift to a bigger arena to house it. Battle Riot VII will now take place at Thunder Studios Arena in Long Beach, California, and all eyes are on the 40-man Battle Riot match. The match will have Matt Riddle putting his MLW World Heavyweight Championship on the line against 39 other competitors, including award-winning actor and MLW Executive Producer Paul Walter Hauser. This will be Hauser’s second Battle Riot match, and ComicBook had the chance to speak to Hauser all about Battle Riot, his favorite heel turn of all time, and what he’s learned since his debut at last year’s Battle Riot, which was also his MLW debut.

Speaking of that debut, this will be Hauser’s second time in the mix of a Battle Riot match, and he’s taking some lessons learned from the first go-round into this next opportunity. “Yeah, I would say ring awareness is something I have that I didn’t have a year ago. You know, last year around this time when I did Battle Riot, I got clocked a number of times by Minoru Suzuki and Mr. Thomas and a couple of different guys, and it really, it really lit me up and I was like, wow, I gotta know what the hell I’m doing in here,” Hauser said.

“So I think better ring awareness this time around, and I also think I know the roster a little bit better. So if I’m in the ring with, and I understand it’s every man for himself, It is what it is, but if I’m in the ring with a Paul London or a Matthew Justice, I have a little bit of rapport with these guys now where I think maybe we can double team on somebody else and I can find some sort of strategic cowardice to stay in the match longer,” Hauser said.

Battle Royals are already frenetic with the number of people in the ring, and then you throw in the street fight element and it just becomes insanity. Hauser remembers a few key moments from last year’s Riot that have stuck in his mind, and not all of them are fond memories.

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“I remember Mr. Thomas’s giant hand front chopping my chest and it feeling like I got shot with a bullet,” Hauser said. “I remember Scotty Riggs coming in and doing the American males clap and dance, and that was pretty awesome. I ended up hitting him with my finish House Arrest and pinned him for the 1, 2, 3. And I remember getting a little cocky and thinking I was gonna hit Sami Callihan with the diamond cutter. I was giving a shout-out to my buddy DDP, and right as I was doing it, he dumped me over the top and I had a very ugly landing on the outside.”

Hauser wants to make an impact and continue to get better in the ring, but he also has a few other things on his list for 2025, including getting some overdue payback and adding some Championship gold to his MLW resume.

“As far as progress goes, I have two losses against the Rogue Horsemen, in particular, CW and Brock Anderson. So I very much need, for my own mental state, I need to Be able to beat the Andersons with Paul London, or even on my own against Brock or CW, I need to beat the Rogue Horsemen,” Hauser said.

“That is like the number one thing I need to do is to shut the mouth of those cocky bastards. But outside of them, I would really love to make a Tag Team run with Paul London and I would really love to go after a Title, be it the World Heavyweight Championship or the Openweight Championship held by my buddy Matthew Justice,” Hauser said. “I really would like to go after those, and if anything, it’s still a proving ground. So whether I win or I lose, I’m auditioning for the approval of everybody watching and I’m just trying to make a statement with my presence more than anything.”

Before the conversation concluded, we just had to talk about the greatest heel turns of all time, as a certain John Cena recently set the wrestling world on fire with his shocking turn. That said, there’s an ongoing debate about what is the best wrestling heel turn of all time, and for Hauser, there is still one very clearly sitting at the top.

“I mean, I vividly remember listening to Bash at the Beach 96 on my television because we couldn’t afford pay-per-view, so we would listen to it like the radio on a scrambled TV set where you couldn’t see the image,” Hauser said. “And I was crying when Hulk Hogan turned heel and forged the alliance of the New World Order. To me, that’s the one to beat, and I don’t know that that’ll ever be beat by anyone. That, to me, that’s the numero uno. But yeah, you know who I would really like to see turn heel though, is I really like heel Swerve Strickland. I want to see heel Swerve and watch him burn down Adam Page’s house. You know what I mean?”

You can see Hauser in action at MLW’s Battle Riot VII, which will take place at Thunder Studios Arena at 7 PM PT. Those who can’t attend can also watch the event live and for free on YouTube at 10 PM EST right here.

What do you want to see next for Hauser in MLW, and who do you think will walk away as World Heavyweight Champion? Let us know in the comments, and you can talk all things wrestling with me on Bluesky @knightofoa!