Major WWE Lawsuit Gets Thrown Out

WWE was hit with a lawsuit from fellow pro wrestling promotion Major League Wrestling back in January, accusing them of interfering in MLW’s business deals with both VICE and the Tubi streaming service. WWE immediately denied the accusations, and news broke late Monday night that the case had been dismissed. Court documents filed in the Northern District of California San Jose Division confirm it.

“The Court finds that MLW has not included sufficient facts to plausibly allege a relevant antitrust product market. Regarding the proposed market, the complaint alleges only that there are four competitors in the ‘United States professional wrestling market’; that the ‘business of promoting professional wrestling as sports entertainment is fundamentally a media industry, with revenues and business valuation[s] driven largely by fees obtained from broadcasting rights deals’; and that corporations such as NBCUniversal and Fox Sports ‘purchase broadcasting rights in the [proposed market] for their various distribution channels such as broadcast networks, cable and satellite services, streaming networks, and film production companies,” the filing reads.

“These facts, as pled, are not sufficient to provide an understanding of the characteristics of the relevant market, including the existence or lack of substitutes. For example, there are no allegations addressing why other ‘sports entertainment’ or ‘media’ content for which broadcasting rights might be sold to distribution channels are not appropriate substitutes. MLW is correct that a single sport may constitute a relevant market… but there are no facts alleged in the complaint to support that legal conclusion. Additionally, the complaint uses multiple formulations to describe the proposed market, which further complicates the question of the market’s boundaries and the reasonably interchangeable products contained within,” it continues.

However, this does not appear to be the end of it between MLW and WWE. MLW founder Court Baurer sent a statement to Fightful this week, which reads, “Our legal team is already at work on amending the complaint. We have every intention to continue pursuing our case against WWE.” Stay tuned for more updates on the situation.