Major League Wrestling lands a free streaming deal on Tubi for ‘MLW Fusion,’ five years after WWE interference claims. Full details inside.
MLW Finally Secures Tubi Streaming Deal Five Years After WWE Legal Battle
LOS ANGELES — Five years after a broadcast partnership collapsed on the eve of its announcement, Major League Wrestling (MLW) has officially secured a free distribution deal with Fox-owned streaming platform Tubi.
Under the new agreement, new episodes of MLW’s weekly flagship series, MLW Fusion, stream free every Thursday at 8 p.m. ET, granting the independent promotion direct access to Tubi’s estimated 110 million monthly active users.
A Five-Year Journey Back to Tubi
The milestone deal marks the culmination of a long-running industry saga. MLW originally agreed to a streaming distribution deal with Tubi in July 2021. However, the agreement was abruptly canceled before going public.
In January 2022, MLW filed an antitrust lawsuit against WWE, alleging that WWE executives—including former chairwoman Stephanie McMahon—pressured Tubi and its parent company, Fox (which broadcast WWE SmackDown at the time), to kill the deal and stifle competition.
The legal battle concluded in December 2023 when WWE and MLW reached an out-of-court settlement, with WWE paying MLW $20 million to resolve the lawsuit.
| Timeline Milestone | Event Details |
| July 2021 | Initial Tubi & MLW agreement collapses prior to public launch |
| January 2022 | MLW files antitrust lawsuit against WWE over interference claims |
| December 2023 | WWE settles lawsuit out of court for $20 million |
| September 2026 | MLW Fusion officially premieres on Tubi free of charge |
“Wrestling Should Be Free to Watch”
MLW Founder and CEO Court Bauer praised the partnership, emphasizing that the deal aligns directly with the promotion’s core business model of accessible, paywall-free content.
“Wrestling should be easy to find and free to watch. We built MLW around that, no paywalls, no subscription barriers, nothing standing between a fan and the show,” Bauer told The Hollywood Reporter. “Tubi shares that same fan-first philosophy at scale.”
Since the initial 2021 deal fell through, MLW has expanded its executive leadership team—adding Emmy Award-winning actor Paul Walter Hauser as an executive producer—and relocated its headquarters to Charleston, South Carolina.
While MLW Fusion now broadcasts primary runs on Thursday nights via Tubi, fans can also catch episodes on YouTube, Live Nation’s Veeps, and NJPW World.
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