Major League Wrestling broadcaster Joe Dombrowski, the only out gay broadcaster currently contracted to a major televised pro wrestling promotion, is extending his stay in the MLW booth.
Dombrowski signed a multi-year contract extension with MLW earlier this month that, according to Dombrowski, will keep him as the play-by-play voice of MLW broadcasts “for the foreseeable future.”
“I’m incredibly grateful to have the platform that I do with MLW. It has been such a great fit for both sides,” Dombrowski told Outsports. “I’ve really enjoyed watching MLW itself take steps up from talent, production and visibility. It’s my hope that, as the company grows, I continue to grow and can keep being who they want and need me to be to represent the brand.”
The deal keeps the longtime announcer in the same booth he has occupied since 2020 when he joined MLW after spending several years with Ring of Honor.
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“When I came to MLW, my big goal, from a short-term standpoint, was to be able to be the voice of a big-time television broadcast … I wanted to put my feet to the fire and see if I could survive in the deep end,” he said. “Complacency is the absolute enemy of progress. I firmly believe that as long as you’re in this business that is so subjective, abstract and always evolving, you have to constantly be learning whether this is your first year or your 50th. I needed that challenge.”
Dombrowski has met that challenge in his time with MLW, including being on the call for Alex Kane’s historic MLW World Heavyweight title win last year. He is also featured on English-language broadcasts of Mexican Lucha Libre promotion AAA and runs his own pro wrestling streaming service, Pro Wrestling Library.
The self-described storyteller hopes that his 21-year journey speaks to others who experience the same internal struggles he did.
“I always envisioned myself in this business doing this specifically, but I had a lot of baggage, a lot of emotional weight that I dragged around with me,” Dombrowski said. “I was not comfortable in my own skin. I was not out. I was not comfortable with who and what I was, and a lot of that was the environment around me, that late 90s-early 2000s alpha male environment.
“I grew up watching a lot of stereotypes and seeing a lot of public backlash and slurs,” he continued. “I’ve always told myself that my desire to succeed has to be stronger than my fear of failure and I have to keep pushing through that.
“I’m a little bit of a late bloomer, but to use my experiences and battles to have some kind of impact on someone that needs it is gratifying. Sometimes all you need is that one voice to really help you out.”
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