FloSports Sues WWN, Could WWN/EVOLVE End Up on WWE Network?

FloSports, which runs the wrestling streaming service FloSlam, is suing the main wrestling company on their service, World Wrestling Network (WWN), which is the parent company of EVOLVE and other independent wrestling promotions.

FloSports alleges that when they signed a deal with WWN in October 2016, WWN mislead them about their previous PPV and on demand buys.

Here’s what the complaint says:

“WWN induced FloSports to pay it hundreds of thousands of dollars based on data that was not only inaccurate and unreliable; it was just plain false. When pressed for the data that backed up WWN’s spreadsheet of viewership, WWN originally claimed it had lost or deleted that information. Ultimately, WWN sent records listing many subscribers more than once and including purchasers of DVDs instead of broadcast services. Even with that artificial inflation of viewership, the numbers WWN attempted to account for were far less than those represented in its initial spreadsheet.”

FloSports also gave this statement to Fightful:

“The lawsuit isn’t to get out of the partnership,” FloSports Senior Vice President and General Counsel Paul Hurdlow told Fightful. “It really is our hope that we’ll get back to talking to WWN and kind of work things out outside of the litigation….Sometimes you have to file a complaint to sort of protect your interest in particular situations. We’re not apologizing that we did it—we chose to do it—but it’s really our preference to have dialogue and work things out with them outside of litigation.”

FloSports alleges that during negotiations, WWN told them that EVOLVE shows averaged about 5,000 buys. FloSlam has just under 2,000 subscribers at $20 a month, according to Fightful.

WWN is expected to counter-sue, according to PWInsider, and the two sides are obviously not on good terms. The deal signed last October was supposed to be for 5 years, but PWInsider says there is actually just over a year remaining. So when it expires, or if the deal is somehow terminated, WWN could potentially bring their network of promotions to the WWE Network.

WWN has a non-official working relationship with WWE, with several WWE wrestlers previously wrestling in EVOLVE and co-founder and head Gabe Sapolsky meeting with NXT officials often.