New court documents have revealed that the Northern District of California’s U.S. District Court has granted WWE’s request to dismiss the antitrust lawsuit MLW filed against them in January 2022.
The court found that MLW had not submitted “sufficient facts” in relation to the charges. In addition, it was noted that MLW didn’t provide enough evidence of wrongdoing to back up its allegations.
“The Court finds that MLW has not included sufficient facts to plausibly allege a relevant antitrust product market” and that their “allegations are insufficient to plausibly allege a relevant product market.”
The news comes with the caveat that the motion was granted with Leave To Amend. In simple terms, this means that MLW has 21 days to file an amended version of the lawsuit. Should they do so, the case will proceed. If they do not, the case will be considered closed.
In the original lawsuit, MLW alleged that WWE had moved to pressure media companies into not doing business with them.
(MLW) “has alleged—e.g., loss of contract revenues due to WWE’s interference—are specific to MLW, rather than to competition at large.”
“MLW includes a single allegation that consumers would have increased access to higher quality professional wrestling entertainment content at lower prices but for WWE’s conduct, but it appends no additional facts to support this conclusion,”
WWE’s Legal Troubles Far From Over
In a statement sent to Fightful regarding the dismissal of the lawsuit, MLW founder Court Bauer said that he and the company intend to continue with the case.
“Our legal team is already at work on amending the complaint. We have every intention to continue pursuing our case against WWE.”
WWE could also be facing a number of legal challenges regarding Vince McMahon’s return to the company in the coming months. A number of law firms are looking at bringing class action lawsuits against WWE, while they are already facing suits from Detroit’s Police and Fire Retirement System, shareholder Scott Fellows, and Dennis Palkon, who is also a shareholder.