WWE has filed to dismiss Major League Wrestling‘s antitrust lawsuit.
MLW filed an amended complaint on March 6 after its initial lawsuit, which was filed in January 2022, was dismissed. MLW originally filed the complaint and claimed that WWE tried to undermine the competition and hinder MLW’s pursuit of media deals. Part of the suit also alleged that WWE tried to hire contracted talent away from MLW, but this complaint was dismissed due to the finding that “The Court finds that MLW has not included sufficient facts to plausibly allege a relevant antitrust product market.”
In the motion, WWE argued that MLW’s definition of the market “remains fatally flawed”, and that the company “failed to sufficiently allege direct evidence of monopoly power. WWE claims that MLW fails to support the argument suggesting that media companies view wrestling programs differently than other shows. The company also asserts that MLW’s failure to plead ” plead “allegations addressing why other ‘sports entertainment’ or media’ content for which broadcast rights might be sold to distribution channels are not appropriate substitutes.” remains.
WWE also argued that MLW’s complaint continues to lack “any non-conclusory allegations that WWE wields market or monopoly power over the hundreds of networks and streaming services with which it has no commercial relationships.” MLW has alleged that WWE “possesses or has a dangerous probability of obtaining monopoly power.”
Additionally, WWE stated that neither of MLW’s theories regarding anticompetitive conduct that blocked MLW from “key” or “favored” networks and streaming services “passes muster”, given the number of alternative purchases of media rights that are available and MLW’s successful acquisition of a television deal.
WWE then claims that MLW does not successfully plead a single instance of WWE “unlawfully interfering with MLW’s contracts with professional wrestlers or venues”, which has been a key point of the suit. WWE also cited its previous motion to dismiss, which noted that the claims lacked subject matter jurisdiction in the state of California.
Furthermore, in response to MLW questioning WWE’s ownership of talent-related intellectual property, WWE responded by saying, “[A] federal district court has already ruled that WWE’s ownership interest in the characters delineated on its television product are as legitimate as DC’s ownership interest in Superman. At base, MLW is grousing that it cannot develop its own characters and would prefer to steal WWE’s copyrighted characters… Indeed, even during the course of this litigation, WWE has had to send MLW a cease and desist letter regarding its attempted theft of the ‘Enzo Amore’ character owned by WWE.”
Lastly, in response to the report that REELZ would not air MLW Underground as part of its live stream on Peacock due to WWE’s exclusive deal with the service, WWE claims, “MLW does not allege that WWE prevents it from selling its media rights to Reelz, nor that Reelz could distribute only through Peacock rather than, e.g., Amazon Prime, Roku, Pluto, Apple TV, or other platforms potential number of purchasers, it cannot escape the reality that WWE only sells its media rights to two of the many potential purchasers of MLW’s content.”
WrestleZone will provide more information as it becomes available.
