More On MLW’s Amended Lawsuit Against WWE, Details On Alleged Talent Tampering

UPDATE: PWInsider has more details from MLW’s amended lawsuit against WWE. As noted, MLW has filed a 44-page amended lawsuit against WWE which adds more detail and arguments regarding WWE’s alleged violation of the Sherman Act regarding anti-trust practices and more.

The amended lawsuit focuses its anti-trust arguments on how companies monetize their content and how WWE ices out other companies in their practices. The suit argues that pro wrestling companies need to strike media rights deals to be successful and that WWE has taken actions that make that almost impossible, which has hurt MLW and other possible competitors. It maintains its previous claims that WWE’s involvement caused the FOX-owned Tubi to cancel their contract with MLW the night before a deal was set to be announced between them, as well as the allegation that Vice backed away from a deal with MLW after a WWE executive told Vice that Vince McMahon was unhappy they were working together. The suit argues that with A&E owning a minority share in Vice, their connection to WWE through the WWE programming block on Sundays hurt MLW’s tanding with the network. While all the financial information from the Tubi deal and their current deal with Reelz are redacted, it is noted that:

“In sum, WWE’s predatory and unfair anti-competitive conduct in the Relevant Market is multi-faceted, with the intent and effect of expanding and maintaining its market power. This conduct includes, but is not limited to: (1) substantially foreclosing the Relevant Market through maintaining exclusivity agreements with major media companies and interfering with competitors’ media rights deals; (2) substantially increasing barriers to entry in the Relevant Market by raising rivals’ costs and restricting their access to the critical and scarce inputs required for professional wrestling programming, namely athletic performers with the requisite physical skills, acting talent, and marketability to be professional wrestlers, including by hiring away rivals’ wrestlers and not using them and by threatening to never hire talent that previously signed with rivals (“blacklisting”); and (3) blocking and foreclosing the access of rivals to professional wrestling venues, which are necessary for the production of professional wrestling programming. The combined effect of the conduct is that WWE has maintained its dominant market power.

Through its predatory and exclusionary conduct and abuse of its market power, WWE has substantially harmed competition in the Relevant Market by depriving MLW and other competitors of access to key media distribution platforms. Its conduct has harmed purchasers of media rights for professional wrestling programming by depriving them of programs and enabled WWE to impose and maintain supracompetitive prices, and in turn has harmed wrestling fans by reducing their choices and quality of professional wrestling programming and increasing their costs of consuming that content.

As a result of WWE’s anti-competitive and predatory conduct, MLW and other professional wrestling promotions have suffered and will continue to suffer substantial monetary damages and irreparable harm.”

The lawsuit also goes into specific details regarding WWE’s alleged tampering with talent contracts, claiming that former talent relations head Canyon Ceyman encouraged Swerve Strickland to get out of his deal with MLW so he could sign with WWE. It also alleges that WWE hired Davey Boy Smith Jr. away from MLW but then never used him outside of a dark match, which they argue makes it clear that WWE was intending to impair their ability to build themselves up. PWInsider notes that Smith is not identified as a former WWE star and a WWE legacy talent, and that WWE could argue that they knew of Smith long before he worked for MLW.

The suit also points out that AEW has reached out to WWE demanding that they not tamper with talent contracts, which appears to be referencing the AEW talent meeting where Tony Khan revealed that AEW legal head Megha Parekh emailed Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan telling them to stop contacting AEW-contracted talent.

The lawsuit also details some of the history of wrestling in the early 200s when WCW and ECW fell and were acquired by WWE, pointing out that WWE moving to TNN in 2000 directly contributed to ECW’s death and WWE acquiring the company’s assets in bankruptcy court.

The lawsuit also makes additional allegations of WWE blocking venue bookings beyond the previously-noted claim that Triple H contacted Madison Square Garden to get the ROH/NJPW G1 Supercard blocked in 2019. The suit claims that WWE prevented AEW Dynamite tapings from taking place at Heritage Bank Center in Cincinnati, Ohio in 2019 and 2020. It also argues that WWE has run events opposite AEW PPVs to attempt to prevent those shows from being profitable.

ORIGINAL: As previously noted, Major League Wrestling (MLW) was expected to file an amended legal complaint against WWE for their ongoing lawsuit. According to PWInsider, MLW filed its amended lawsuit yesterday before the United States District Court, Northern District of California, San Jose Division.

The amended complaint was reportedly 44 pages and breaks down the charges from initial legal filing in January 2022, and it also includes MLW’s current situation with REELZ. It states as follows:

“Most recently, WWE’s predatory conduct further impeded MLW in its ability to compete in the licensing of its programming for distribution on streaming services and continues to threaten to deprive MLW of its ability to license its programming for distribution on cable. As a result of WWE’s misconduct, MLW is at risk of its business being irreparably destroyed. In February 2023, MLW’s new media partner — Reelz — announced a distribution deal with streaming service Peacock. But as a direct result of WWE’s exclusivity arrangement with NBCUniversal, which prohibits any other professional wrestling programming on Peacock, MLW’s programming is excluded from this streaming deal, which further suppresses competition in the Relevant Market. MLW also is reportedly at risk of losing its cable deal with Reelz as a result of WWE’s exclusivity with Peacock.”

Additionally, the legal filing has details on WWE’s alleged attempts to keep ROH out of holding an event at the Madison Square Garden. Previously, former ROH COO Joe Koff claimed WWE attempted to prevent ROH from booking an event at the venue. The filing reads:

“WWE has engaged in a continued pattern of blocking its competitors from accessing favorable venues. For example, in the summer of 2018, ROH, a competing professional wrestling promotion owned at the time by Sinclair, booked a major wrestling show in New York’s iconic Madison Square Garden (“MSG”). The show at MSG was to be a joint feature between NJPW and Sinclair’s ROH. MSG has long been considered WWE’s “home turf” and Sinclair intentionally planned the show in MSG as “part of a move to expand the promotion’s events into larger venues.”

ROH’s MSG show sold out immediately, with wrestling fans excited about a show in this popular and iconic venue. WWE, however, had other plans. WWE had scheduled WrestleMania for the same weekend at the nearby MetLife Stadium, and did not want any ROH MSG show to compete with it.

In a naked attempt to restrain competition through the abuse of its market power, WWE, through Paul Levesque, its then-Executive Vice President, called MSG to insist that MSG cancel the show with ROH and NJPW. Unable to resist the pressure from the industry behemoth, MSG succumbed, and withdrew from the ROH agreement and cancelled the ROH show. While Sinclair threatened to sue MSG over their agreement, and the show was rescheduled, ROH and NJPW were forced to incur significant legal expense to vindicate their legal rights and to defend against WWE’s anti-competitive behavior. A smaller nascent competitor, without the support of Sinclair, may not have been able to resist such pressure and incur the necessary legal expenses to vindicate its rights.”

Per PWInsider’s report, MLW’s lawsuit alleges that WWE currently controls 92% of the pro wrestling marketshare, with AEW at 6%, and all other promotions at 2%.