WWE has highlighted the victories of their competitor All Elite Wrestling in their efforts to get MLW’s lawsuit dismissed.
MLW is claiming that WWE pressured Tubi to cancel an agreement to stream their content and has argued that Vince McMahon’s promotion is ‘monopolizing‘ the professional wrestling market.
WWE recently filed to dismiss the lawsuit, and referenced AEW as proof that they are not monopolizing the market:
“AEW’s success further undercuts MLW’s unsupported assertion that substantial barriers to entry exist. The complaint alleges that WWE’s popularity has “declined” over the last five years. It goes on to say that, during the same period, AEW entered the proposed market and successfully sold broadcast rights to WarnerMedia. Subsequently, AEW managed to capture an average 2020 rating of 0.344 compared to WWE Raw’s 0.5075 in the key 18-to-49 demographic. This successful entry and expansion refutes the existence of substantial barriers to entry. “
WWE also referenced AEW Rampage achieving a better result in the 18-49 demographic when the show went head-to-head with SmackDown for 30 minutes in October 2021.
In the WWE's response to the MLW lawsuit, besides the written response they provided an exhibit. The exhibit was the October 18, 2021 issue of the Observer that covered WWE losing the 30 minutes head-to-head with AEW as evidence they weren't a dominant monopoly.
— Dave Meltzer (@davemeltzerWON) March 16, 2022
