It caused Vince McMahon to fire his most trusted legal bulldog.
Is it the reason we haven’t seen any more of Roman Reigns’ cousins join the Bloodline?
Did it stop The Elite jumping ship to WWE?
And why - after all this time - did WWE simply settle their lawsuit?
I’m Luke Owen, and this is how WWE lost their wrestling monopoly… for legal reasons.
On January 11th, 2022, Major League Wrestling - MLW - filed an antitrust lawsuit against
WWE, with the basic accusations of blocking TV deals they were trying to acquire, and
attempts to poach their talent.
They were accusing WWE of operating an illegal monopoly.
We’ll go into all the ins and outs of this lawsuit shortly, but the end point is thus:
WWE settled.
On December 11th, 2023, Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics revealed via Twitter:
“WWE and MLW have come to a settlement in the antitrust case against WWE.
Lawyers for both companies filed today: "The Parties are in the process of completing the
final settlement documents and expect to file the appropriate dismissal papers within the
next thirty (30) days" He also posted a picture of the settlement
notice which is… thrilling, I guess?
The Hollywood Reporter wrote that “details weren’t disclosed” of the settlement,
but it’s a pretty surprising finale to this case.
WWE had the lawsuit dismissed on several occasions, but MLW kept coming back, and now WWE have
backed down.
WWE BackDown - name of your next PPV.
PWInsider reported that, “there is a lot of happiness among talents in MLW upon hearing
about the WWE settlement”, as it means the company can again focus on growing rather
than fighting with the biggest wrestling company on the planet.
It also means they now have more cash in the bank, with Dave Meltzer speculating on Wrestling
Observer Radio that, “Evidently, they got some money [from the lawsuit] because they’re
greatly expanding their schedule, and they said that they’re going to be in the market
for expanding their talent base.”
That expansion of talent has seen MLW already announce the signing of free-agent Sami Callihan,
and it’s been revealed that former WWE star Matt Riddle will be wrestling for MLW on January
6th 2024 at Kings of the Colosseum in Philadelphia, against Jacob Fatu - a match that will be
emotionally charged given Riddle’s history with The Bloodline.
We’ll have more on the Fatus later in this episode.
MLW themselves wrote on their website, “Winter is here but the hot stove is heating up.
MLW’s talent relations department, which is in the midst of a significant overhaul,
has been active in discussions with several high-profile free agents.”
But what exactly was this lawsuit about, anyway?
Major League Wrestling was a promotion that launched in the early 2000s, but closed after
a couple of years.
It saw a revival in 2017 under original founder - and former WWE writer - Court Bauer, and
since been seen as - well - below WWE and AEW, and possibly even TNA.
But certainly above NWA ever since Billy Corgan lost his mind and put the title on Tyrus for
a long time and did a drug scandal angle on PPV that might have cost them a lucrative
TV deal with the CW.
In 2022, MLW filed an antitrust suit against WWE, writing they were fighting against, “WWE's
ongoing attempts to undermine competition in and monopolize the professional wrestling
market by interfering with MLW's contracts and business prospects.”
The allegations start with Vice, who in the Spring of 2021, struck a deal with MLW to
air archival footage of their promotion that was then blossoming into bigger talks about
the station airing a weekly TV program.
The suit alleged that Vince McMahon was “pissed” about this and that Susan Levison - then-Senior
Vice President and Head of WWE Studios - called a Vice executive and warned them not to do
a deal with MLW.
The argument provided was that WWE knew they had the leverage in this scenario, because
Vice aired Dark Side of the Ring which featured WWE footage.
They also add that A&E own 20% of Vice, and WWE and A&E had a very close relationship.
According to the suit, the Vice executive responded that what Levison was asking them
to do was illegal and an antitrust violation, to which Levison allegedly responded, she
“cannot control McMahon”.
They claimed that WWE’s interference cost MLW their Vice deal.
In July of 2021, MLW signed a deal with Tubi, a streaming service owned by Fox, and began
plans for TV tapings, which would also include a press release from both parties about the
new relationship.
However, in August of 2021, according to the lawsuit, Stephanie McMahon met with an executive
of Tubi to request - or as they write “initially pressure” - that MLW not air against WWE’s
NXT on Tuesday nights.
This ‘initial pressure’ then turned into: terminate the agreement completely, or we’ll
remove WWE from Fox.
Fox - according to the suit - sided with WWE.
Which is hilarious when you consider how that relationship ended up.
The other big allegation from the lawsuit was that in August of 2020, WWE tried to poach
MLW’s talent from their contracts, by contacting them and asking if they can get out of their
deals.
This is the same accusation Tony Khan of AEW threw at WWE in late 2022, a claim that has
been backed up by reports from several reputable outlets like Fightful Select.
The suit also claims that WWE told other independent talent that if they did work for MLW in the
future, they would not be hired by WWE, which meant wrestlers were apprehensive of taking
bookings from Major League Wrestling.
Throughout 2022, WWE got the lawsuit dismissed not once, but twice, with Judge Edward Davila
noted that MLW did not provide sufficient facts for their case.
MLW filled again in March of 2023.
WWE tried to dismiss this one too, but this time the judge ruled in favor of MLW.
So, what changed?
Well, in January of 2023, MLW reached a deal with cable channel REELZ to air their TV show,
starting in February.
In that same month Reelz agreed to a deal with NBCUniversal to be part of their streaming
platform.
That streaming platform was called Peacock.
Can you guess what might have happened next?
The deal between MLW and Reelz was announced that it was coming to an end, with the station
telling PWInsider, “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.”
But…
did MLW really agree?
Because in March of 2023 they cited the REELZ deal falling apart as part of their amended
lawsuit, calling WWE’s behavoir “predatory conduct”.
They also added to their previous accusations, citing Triple H contacting Madison Square
Garden in 2018 to get them to cancel the joint ROH/NJPW PPV - which they did until Sinclair
(the then owners of ROH) threatened to sue MSG and they put the show back on - and how
WWE ran two PPV events around AEW’s All Out in 2022, “in an effort to prevent AEW
from posing a real threat to WWE’s market share.”
They also expanded upon the contract tampering, alleging that WWE contacted Swerve Strickland
in 2018 - when he was MLW’s World Champion - and asked him to breach his contract so
he could sign with WWE.
They also allege that in 2021, they did the same with Davey Boy Smith Jr - one of MLW’s
top stars at the time - and rather than use him on TV, WWE only had him appear on one
dark match and released him just a few months later.
The lawsuit writes, “By WWE failing to use Smith in its programming, WWE made clear its
intent to impair MLW’s ability to build its brand and viewership by removing one of
its successful wrestlers.”
What’s really interesting is that, around this time, there was talk of WWE wanting to
bring in new names to the company, but felt that they couldn’t because of this lawsuit.
In May of 2023, Court Bauer revealed on Busted Open Radio that WWE had multiple chances to
sign Jacob Fatu but opted not to, despite having “three or four tryouts at WWE PC”.
Fatu is part of the Anoa’i Family, and was argued as a ‘no-brainer’ to bring in to
expand The Bloodline faction, one of WWE’s most popular storylines in years.
Similarly, Sean Ross Sapp noted on the Fightful Post Show review of the December 18th 2023
edition of Monday Night Raw, that WWE were confident they could bring back Trinity into
WWE earlier in the year.
Trinity - the former Naomi in WWE - is the wife of Bloodline member Jimmy Uso.
While it could be argued this was to do with the MLW case, it was also reported that in
early 2023, WWE had a ‘talent hiring freeze’ due to the merger deal with Endeavour.
But that wasn’t the only according to other sources, with Dave Meltzer also noted in a
June edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that they were, “not going to risk any tampering”
when it came to wrestler’s contracts.
Especially those signed to AEW.
Specifically, The Elite.
In August of 2023, it was announced by AEW that The Elite of Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks
and Hangman Adam Page had re-signed new multi-year deals with the company.
While that may feel like a fairly obvious bit of news, it wasn’t always guaranteed.
There was all the Brawl Out drama, CM Punk was coming back, and WWE were interested in
bringing The Elite into their ranks.
Dave Meltzer let slip on Wrestling Observer Radio that if it wasn’t for the MLW lawsuit,
WWE would have made a play for them.
However, WWE were “very, very leery because of the MLW lawsuit…
WWE has been uncharacteristically not aggressively trying to steal talent.”
Meltzer adds that WWE had interest in The Elite, and The Elite had interest in hearing
from WWE, but nothing could be done.
However, like Jacob Fatu and Trinity, this could also be down to that ‘talent hiring
freeze’.
But the biggest change in this case came on July 7th.
Because on July 7th, Jerry McDivitt announced that he was retiring.
Now, you may be asking: ‘who is Jerry McDivitt?’
And the answer would be: one of the most powerful and influential people in the history of WWE.
As WWE’s go-to lawyer, he helped the company through the steroid trial of 1994, the Owen
Hart wrongful death lawsuit, the aftermath of Chris Benoit, and many, many concussion
lawsuits.
Without Jerry, WWE might not be the powerhouse it is today.
He told Wrestlnomics that because the MLW lawsuit was not going to get thrown out, he
wanted to retire now as he felt this thing could go on until at least 2025 and he didn’t
want to be working until then.
But there was more to this story than met the eye, as it wasn’t just Jerry that left
the case.
The entire law firm representing WWE did.
K&L Gates were removed from the MLW case, and replaced with the same high-powered firm
that was handling the Endeavour merger.
Dave Meltzer noted on Wrestling Observer Radio, “WWE thought the MLW case was going to go
away and Jerry McDevitt wrote arguments to get the case dismissed and they were all rejected
so the case is going forward…
You don't replace an entire firm unless there's something going on and obviously, Vince McMahon
was not happy with that aspect of the case not going away.”
And, like the end of the 1983 movie War Games, this new law firm felt the only way to win
was not to play.
So they settled.
But if they’ve spent the last couple of years fighting this case and arguing they’re
not a monopoly, why did they settle?
The likely answer is: to make it go away.
As Dave Meltzer noted on Wrestling Observer Radio, WWE were leery about this case.
He added if WWE, “do something wrong and it gets out, that’s not a good thing for
that lawsuit.”
And as we’ve seen over the course of this video, and over the course of wrestling history,
some of the things WWE loves to do - allegedly - are things like contract tampering, counter
programming, using their leverage to get competitor business deals squashed.
Again, I must stress, allegedly, allegedly, allegedly.
They allegedly love doing those things.
And you can’t do those things if there’s a lawsuit accusing you of doing those things.
So they settled.
Out of court.
And everyone gets to move on.
What’s so interesting when looking back on this lawsuit is that MLW were almost a
couple of years late to the game when it came to accusing WWE of being a monopoly.
By the time 2022 had rolled around, All Elite Wrestling was thriving.
MLW’s lawsuit alleges that AEW aren’t profitable - something we’ve discussed that
here on WrestleTalk News, that video is linked to in the description down below - but they’ve
gotten TV deals with Warner Bros, sold out Wembley Stadium, signed top talent from around
the world and hot free agents like Will Ospreay, as well as getting great ratings on TV and
lucrative sponsorship deals.
And that isn’t me ‘stoking tribalistic fires’ or being ‘an AEW mark’, that
was WWE’s legal defense.
We can’t be a monopoly, AEW is successful and has beaten us in the ratings on multiple
occasions.
And we’re now looking at a 2024 where WWE is on top of the world, AEW is bouncing back,
TNA is offering seven-figure deals to sign talent, and MLW is trying to make a name for
itself.
Top that up with the Free Agent Market of 2024, and this wrestling world is going to
get a hell of a lot more interesting for people interested in the business side of things
- and fun for those who love wrestling.
Which, you know, is all of us.
So, while yes, WWE were once a monopoly force in the world of wrestling.
But unlike the last 20 years - since the collapse of WCW - WWE are far from the only successful
game in town.
They’re just the biggest.
And that’s not the only change to WWE’s business.
Click the video on screen right now to find out.