WWE faces an antitrust lawsuit from a wrestling rival

Jonathan Stempel

June 16 (Reuters) – A U.S. judge has rejected World Wrestling Entertainment’s efforts to dismiss a smaller rival’s antitrust lawsuit that accused it of monopolizing the market for professional wrestling media rights.

In Thursday’s decision, U.S. District Judge Edward Davila in San Jose, California, found that MLW Media had presented sufficient “circumstantial evidence” that WWE was using its dominance to deny rivals access to various distributors and arenas.

MLW says Stamford, Conn.-based WWE generates about 92% of U.S. media rights revenue for pro wrestling, compared to 6% for All Elite Wrestling and less than 2% for everyone else.

The Mamaroneck, New York-based plaintiff also cited WWE’s exclusive rights deals with Fox and Comcast’s NBCUniversal, which operate major cable networks, and said WWE blocks rivals from NBC’s Peacock streaming platform.

MLW sufficiently alleged that WWE’s activities “had a significant effect on foreclosing competitors from the wrestling media rights market,” Davila wrote.

WWE and its lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday.

Marc Kasowitz, an attorney for MLW, said in a statement that the company looks forward to recovering “substantial” damages for WWE’s “many years of egregious anti-competitive conduct.” The case started in January 2022.

In seeking the waiver, WWE said wrestling promoters “have all the tools they need to succeed” and that MLW can sign up to other channels and platforms, including those run by Amazon.com, CBS, Disney, Netflix and Warner Bros Discovery.

The case is MLW Media LLC v. World Wrestling Entertainment Inc, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 22-00179. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York)