WWE: MLW Antitrust Lawsuit Update, Asuka Claims Stardom was Created to Destroy Her, More News

MLW Antitrust Lawsuit Against WWE Update – WWE Confirms Talks with Tubi But Denies Costing MLW’s Streaming Deal

As noted before, Major League Wrestling’s original antitrust lawsuit against WWE was dismissed this past February and had filed a new amended lawsuit this past March.

Fightful’s Jeremy Lambert reported that WWE filed an official response to MLW’s amended lawsuit on Monday before the United States District Court, Northern Division of California, San Jose based on recent court records.

In their filing, WWE admitted that former WWE executive Stephanie McMahon had spoken to a Tubi official in August 2021. WWE also denied MLW’s accusation that McMahon’s talk was done to pressure Tubi and FOX to eventually drop their streaming deal with MLW due to issues related to WWE’s television deal with FOX.

Portion of WWE’s filing:

WWE admits that, on or about August 9, 2021, Stephanie McMahon spoke with a Tubi executive. WWE denies the allegations in the second, third, and fourth sentences of Paragraph 100. The allegations in the fifth sentence of Paragraph 100 refer to and purport to interpret a document not cited in or attached to the FAC. As such, WWE lacks knowledge or information sufficient to form a belief as to the truth of the allegations in the fifth sentence of Paragraph 100. WWE therefore denies the allegations in the second sentence of Paragraph 100. Furthermore, the referenced document speaks for itself. WWE respectfully refers the Court to the full cited document for its language and complete contents, and otherwise denies the allegations in the fifth sentence of Paragraph 100.

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Asuka Comments on Stardom Was “Created to Destroy Me Personally But They Failed”

Asuka was involved in an online incident this past Sunday over comments and allegations she made towards Stardom and the Japanese wrestling media.

In a series of tweets, Asuka claimed that the Japanese wrestling media hated her during her career in Japan due to her not flattering them unlike other wrestlers. Asuka also claimed that this was the reason why she worked as a freelancer in Japan and is anti-Joshi wrestling.

I don't flatter anyone.
Even in Japan, the media hated me because I don't flatter the media.
In Japan, everyone was flirting with the media except me.
I fought the media alone to take care of my fans. That's why some of the Japanese media still hate me.
That's why I've always… https://t.co/XOYSjqBDdw

— ASUKA / 明日華 (@WWEAsuka) August 14, 2023

Asuka also claimed that Japanese Joshi wrestling promotion Stardom was specifically created to try to destroy her wrestling career and her personally but they failed.

The former editor-in-chief of Pro Wrestling Weekly has made this point on several occasions.
That is, Stardom is an organization that was created to defeat me. It is an organization that was created to destroy me personally.
But they failed to defeat me.
I don't know what…

— ASUKA / 明日華 (@WWEAsuka) August 14, 2023

Asuka also stated:

“The media could not bring me down when I came to America. They must have really wanted me to fail. I am used to it because I have been fighting my critics alone since my days in Japan. But now that I am here, I have comrades in arms. Charlotte, Becky, HHH and… I’ve walked alone in the wilderness all my life, and here I have an oasis. To the Asuka antis, I say, beat me up on the Internet all you want. I grab everything.

When I became champion, one media outlet asked wrestling fans, “Do you think it is good enough to be champion? “Do you think it deserves to be champion?” Compare me to other people. Do you think my abilities are inferior? Can you believe that? I was always fighting that media all by myself.”

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WWE News & Notes

Monday’s WWE RAW show in Winnipeg, Canada featured one new match officially announced for the card of next week’s RAW show in Quebec City, Canada. This is a Cage match of Trish Stratus vs. Becky Lynch. This match was setup following Stratus and Lynch’s match on Monday’s show ending in a double countout and Zoey Stark being involved in the post-match brawl leading to WWE official Adam Pearce announcing a cage match to settle their issues once and for all.

Deadline reported that Big E, real name Ettore Ewen, recently joined the cast to star in an upcoming film by Swen Studios titled F Plus. It was reported that this upcoming film was written by Jonathan Davenport, who makes wrestling gear for several wrestlers including New Day, and production recently finished in Orlando, Florida.

A new wrestling-based autobiographical book based on Ronda Rousey is currently scheduled to be released on April 2, 2024. This upcoming book is currently titled Our Fight: A Memoir by Ronda Rousey and focuses on Rousey’s life and career in UFC.

In a recent episode of the Kliq This podcast, co-host Kevin Nash stated that he recently pitched the idea to WWE of being the master of ceremonies for their SummerSlam 2023 event earlier this month in Detroit, Michigan. Nash stated “I asked if I could be involved. I asked if I could be the master of ceremonies of SummerSlam. I asked. Deaf ears, baby.” In response to a question by co-host Sean Oliver of if WWE rejected his request due to him not giving them enough time, Nash responded stating “I don’t know. I don’t know how much more time I can give them. I gave him a couple months. I think that they think I probably would have just said, ‘Nah.’ But I would have actually done it because I was there.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

As noted before, Bray Wyatt has been out of action for WWE since this past March due to an undisclosed “physical illness” medical issue. In a recent interview with Sportskeeda’s WrestleBinge podcast, Wyatt’s father and former wrestler Mike Rotunda gave his thoughts about Bray’s current health status and potential return to WWE in the future. Rotunda stated “You read a lot of stuff on the internet, which I wouldn’t believe a lot of it, or in my case, any of it. Bray Wyatt, I’m sure will return to WWE, hopefully shortly. We’ll go from there.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)