WWE is heading back to the court room once again, and this time it’s for allegedly attempting to undermine their competition by interfering with MLW’s contracts and television deals.
MLW is run by former WWE writer Court Baurer and makes their money mainly from the smaller local and international media deals and airs mainly on Youtube, so a television or streaming deal would mean a big step up for the company.
But that’s only part of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8R1VvBlA08w
Digging in deeper
MLW released a press release that stated in part(special thanks to @the_wrestling_news2 for the transcript):
“As described in the complaint, WWE pressured third parties to abandon contracts and prospective relationships with MLW. WWE’s misconduct included disrupting every level of MLW’s business, including a major streaming deal for MLW which would have been transformative for the company.”
One of their assertions is that they entered into a deal with the Fox owned streaming service Tubi. But WWE called an executive at Fox and threated to pull WWE programming and stop doing business with the company if Fox didn’t terminate the deal.
They also alleged that, as reported by the New York Post, due to the deal being dropped days before it MLW was to air on Tubi they lost an estimated 40 percent drop in ticket sales in the following weeks.
The WWE signed with Fox in 2018 for the network to air Smackdown on Fridays, and they further expanded the deal to show older pay-per-views during the pandemic.
More accusations
The complaint also claims that WWE senior vice president Susan Levison called a VICE executive in May 2021 when VICE and MLW were entering into a business relationship.
They allege that she told them Vince McMahon was upset the network was going to air MLW programming and they should end the relationship.
The New York Post continued by reporting the VICE executive told Levinson they believed she was engaging in “an antitrust violation.”
MLW’s complaint alleges that VICE withdrew from the negotiations and only aired “MLW Fightland” on October 2.
MLW also added the claim that the WWE aired footage of one of their wrestlers during a WWE broadcast without authorization and encouraged MLW wrestlers to disclose confidential business dealings to breach their contracts.
The WWE said in a statement that the “WWE believes these claims have no merit and intends to vigorously defend itself against them.”
If history has taught us anything it’s that Vince McMahon has one of the best lawyers in the world, so this should be interesting to see unfold and if the WWE is found guilty of the accusations or if they’re innocent.
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