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A scheduled hearing before The United States District Court California Northern District (San Jose) California this Thursday 10/26 about whether WWE's defenses against the amended lawsuit MLW has filed will stand to scrutiny before the court and be allowed to proceed, has been canceled, PWInsider.com has confirmed.
The court issued a ruling on 10/17 that the presiding Judge, Edward J. Davila, will instead issue a ruling based on previous motions and arguments filed by MLW and WWE.
Back in March 2023, Major League Wrestling filed their amended lawsuit against WWE. That suit, totaling 44 pages with an additional filing breaking down all the changes from the original January 2022 lawsuit filing, had been expanded to include MLW alleging "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."
MLW exited REELZ after 13 episodes, but REELZ later issued a statement to PWInsider.com that the two sides were in discussion about additional "seasons." The belief upon MLW's REELZ debut was that the two sides had agreed to a multi-year deal but upon the announcement of the REELZ-Peacock alliance, the MLW series was downplayed greatly in comparison to its initial weeks on the cable broadcaster.
On 10/5, REELZ confirmed to PWInsider.com that the relationship between the two sides would not continue, stating, "We evaluated wrestling on REELZ and decided that it was not a great fit with the current programming direction of the network and MLW agreed so there are no further conversations taking place." In response, an MLW source stated that REELZ's statement did "not reflect the reality of what happened," but declined to explain further.
MLW's Amended lawsuit alleges that WWE's exclusivity agreements (such as Peacock and NBC) create violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act as it pertains to the pro wrestling media market in the United States.
MLW has argued since it first filed its initial lawsuit that WWE was engaging in unfair practices, including attempting to prevent Ring of Honor (then owned by The Sinclair Broadcast Group) from running Madison Square Garden when allegedly Paul Levesque stepped in to stop it temporarily, that WWE prevented AEW from booking an Arena in Cincinnati several years back and that WWE went after signed MLW talents, including Davey Boy Smith Jr. and Swerve Strickland, neither of whom are currently with WWE. Smith was slated to headline the 10/14 MLW Slaughterhouse event on FITE+ in Philadelphia before surgery prevented that appearance.
MLW has also maintained that WWE's Stephanie McMahon interfered with a MLW deal with FOX-owned streaming service Tubi, leading to that deal being canceled the night before it was to be announced and a potential deal with Vice TV, which only aired one original MLW special and several older MLW TV shows. WWE has conceded that McMahon, who has since left the company, did have contact with the Tubi Exec but denied there was any connection to that discussion and MLW's Tubi deal being canceled the day before it was set to be publicly announced.
Since the lawsuit was filed, WWE was aquired by Endeavor and merged with UFC under a new parent company, TKO Group Holdings.
The future trajectory of the lawsuit will be decided when Judge Davila makes his ruling.
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