A new suit filed by MLW.
In early February, when Major League Wrestling’s antitrust lawsuit against WWE was dismissed, the organization’s CEO, Court Bauer, immediately responded by noting that he had his legal team working on amending the complaint which they had 21 days to complete.
Along the way, Peacock struck a deal with Reelz Channel which included their live linear feed. That feed carries MLW Underground at 10 PM but due to WWE having exclusivity with Peacock in the wrestling category, MLW’s programming does not air on that feed.
Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics obtained the amended suit from MLW that was filed on March 6th. The filing reads that WWE is violating the Sherman Antitrust act in regards to the U.S. market for pro wrestling media content. It is added that exclusivity agreements like the WWE-Peacock deal that prevent the service from presenting non-WWE-related wrestling content are not the norm.
Elsewhere in the suit, it is alleged that Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque contacted Madison Square Garden in 2018 to encourage the venue to cancel an event hosted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling and Ring of Honor, which was eventually held in 2019 titled ‘G1 Supercard’.
MLW added that WWE blocked All Elite Wrestling from running the Heritage Bank Center in Cincinnati, Ohio in 2019 and pre-pandemic 2020.
On the talent front, MLW alleged that then-WWE executive, Canyon Ceman, encouraged Swerve Strickland to opt out of his MLW deal to join WWE. The organization believes there was a similar situation concerning Harry Smith a.k.a. Davey Boy Smith Jr.
Another point MLW raised to prove how tasking it is to compete with WWE is that AEW has yet to be profitable since launching in 2019.
Both MLW and WWE have been contacted by Wrestlenomics and both have yet to respond as of this writing.
