WWE Files Response to Amended MLW Lawsuit, Argues Why Suit Should Be Dismissed

WWE has filed a response to MLW’s amended lawsuit against them, arguing why the lawsuit should be dismissed. PWInsider reports that the response was filed today ahead of a hearing that’s set for June 15th.

As previously reported, MLW filed an amended version of their lawsuit against WWE back in March, accusing them of violating the Sherman Act regarding anti-trust practices and more. WWE’s new response argues that MLW contradicted itself, noting that MLW admitted to selling its media rights to Reelz and that other ptomotions likw AEW and WOW – Women Of Wrestling “have expanded output and sold their media rights for millions of dollars.” It goes on to note:

“These admissions are fatal to MLW’s monopolization claim. Hoping to diminish them, MLW told the Court that Reelz would prematurely cancel its contract with MLW because of WWE and it labeled AEW and WOW “de minimis” competitors. In actuality, Reelz extended its ten-week trial run with MLW, and MLW just announced multiple new, “hugely important” media rights agreements with a streaming service, FITE. As for AEW, far from being a de minimis competitor, it just expanded the sale of its media rights to WarnerBros.-Discovery (“WBD”) for a reported $240 million per year.”

It should be noted that Tony Khan did acknowledge that AEW is being paid for AEW Collision and that it is a new deal, though the value of the deal has not been confirmed.

The response goes on to say that MLW did not allege any plausible claims against WWE when it comes to their definition of their product market, and that “MLW could never allege facts to establish revenues as an appropriate measure of market share. Market share reflects the pieces of the pie for which competitors are competing. WWE’s alleged competitors are not competing for a fixed pool of revenues.”

The response adds that MLW hasn’t credibly claimed any harm to competition or antitrust standing, and that the company’s claim that WWE locks down IPs of wrestlers isn’t accurate as the company “contracts with former WWE talent who retain rights to their intellectual property created prior to joining WWE.”

WWE also argues that while “MLW attempted to minimize this success through a reference to unsubstantiated online rumors (rather than its own interactions with Reelz) that WWE’s exclusive contract with NBCU’s Peacock would cause Reelz to cancel MLW programming prematurely. Yet Reelz did not cancel MLW. Instead, it continued to purchase and air MLW content beyond an initial ten-week trial period. Separately, MLW plead that WWE somehow blocked it from selling its media rights to FITE, a streaming platform, despite the fact that WWE has no alleged contractual relationship with FITE. In actuality, MLW just announced a new, “hugely important” agreement with FITE, and MLW’s weekly program, Fusion, is now available on FITE+, beIN Sports, and YouTube, and MLW entered into yet another agreement with FITE to air its premium live events, similar to how Peacock airs WWE’s premium live events.”

WWE argues that MLW has failed to allege a cause of action and the court should dismiss the remaining claims for lack of subject matter and jurisdiction; they also want the court to block any further attempts to amend the lawsuit if this version gets dismissed.