WWE Moves Court To Dismiss Amended Lawsuit From MLW

WWE has filed a motion to dismiss MLW’s amended antitrust lawsuit.

On March 6, MLW filed an amended complaint following its initial lawsuit, which was filed on January 2022 and dismissed by the court of law.

WWE stated in the motion that MLW’s definition of the market “remains fatally flawed”, and that the company “failed to sufficiently allege direct evidence of monopoly power.”

WWE further claimed that MLW has failed to support the argument, highlighting that media companies view wrestling programs differently than other shows. WWE asserted MLW’s failure to ”plead allegations addressing why other ‘sports entertainment’ or media’ content for which broadcast rights might be sold to distribution channels are not appropriate substitutes.”

WWE further 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.”

WWE also took issue with MLW’s theories regarding anticompetitive conduct that allegedly blocked the latter from “key” or “favored” networks and streaming services “passes muster”, considering the number of alternative purchases of media rights that are available and MLW’s successful acquisition of a television deal.

WWE argued that MLW has failed to plead a single instance of WWE “unlawfully interfering with MLW’s contracts with professional wrestlers or venues”, which has been a pivotal point of the lawsuit. WWE also mentioned its previous motion to dismiss, noting that the claims lacked subject matter jurisdiction in the state of California.

In response to MLW questioning WWE’s ownership of talent-related intellectual property, WWE responded,

“[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 exclusivity with the streaming service, WWE claimed, “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.”

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