MLW Files Antitrust Lawsuit Against WWE

WWE has pulled a lot of tricky business moves over the company’s history. One move that cost MLW out of a television deal is now landing them in court.

It was previously reported that WWE put the kibosh on Tubi inking a deal with another “third-party wrestling company” who had landed a deal with Tubi. MLW is the company in question.

A source close to Fox that Fightful spoke with indicated that WWE did not respond favorably to the deal, which was to be announced imminently after WWE was made aware. As a result, the future of that third party deal was in question.

Now MLW has copped to being the company in question and they are suing Vince McMahon’s company. They dropped a press release to let everyone know what is going on in this situation.

Professional wrestling company Major League Wrestling (MLW) (MLW Media LLC), filed a lawsuit today against World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (WWE).  The federal court antitrust lawsuit is based on WWE’s ongoing attempts to undermine competition in and monopolize the professional wrestling market by interfering with MLW’s contracts and business prospects.

As described in the complaint, WWE pressured third parties to abandon contracts and prospective relationships with MLW.  WWE’s misconduct included disrupting every level of MLW’s business, including a major streaming deal for MLW which would have been transformative for the company.

MLW also allege in the complaint that in early 2021, after MLW announced that it was in talks with VICE TV to air MLW programs on VICE TV, a then-WWE executive warned VICE TV that WWE owner Vince McMahon was “pissed” that VICE TV was airing MLW programs, and that VICE TV should stop working with MLW, the VICE TV executive responded that WWE’s conduct was illegal and an antitrust violation, with the WWE executive responding that she could not control McMahon.

“WWE has been wrongfully depriving its competitors of critical opportunities for many years, but its latest conduct has been even more unconscionable,” said MLW CEO Court Bauer.  “I think we speak for the rest of the professional wrestling world when we say that this anti-competitive behavior has to stop.”

WWE’s ongoing misconduct has hurt fans of professional wrestling and competition in the professional wrestling industry.  Through this lawsuit, MLW seeks to recover its losses due to WWE’s interference and to enjoin WWE from future interference.

The case is captioned MLW Media LLC v. World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.  MLW is represented by Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP.

We will have to see how this situation transpires from this point on. WWE has a very good legal team and they are able to get Vince McMahon’s company out of some tricky situations. Keep checking back with Ringside News for more on this still developing story.

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