Major League Wrestling has signed a new streaming distribution agreement with Tubi for MLW FUSION, more than five years after an earlier deal with the streaming service collapsed and became part of MLW’s antitrust lawsuit against WWE.
New episodes of FUSION began streaming free on Tubi on September 17. The show will air Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET.
MLW originally reached a distribution agreement with Tubi in 2021. The promotion was preparing for a September 11 launch, and the deal was scheduled to be announced on August 10.
The announcement never happened.
According to the antitrust lawsuit MLW later filed against WWE, Tubi terminated the agreement the night before it was scheduled to be announced. MLW alleged that then-WWE executive Stephanie McMahon contacted a Tubi executive and pressured the Fox-owned streaming service to drop MLW.
The Tubi deal became one of the central issues in the lawsuit MLW filed against WWE in January 2022. MLW accused WWE of interfering with its media relationships with Tubi and VICE TV and using its position in the wrestling industry to restrict MLW’s access to television and streaming distribution.
WWE denied MLW’s allegations.
The two companies settled the lawsuit in December 2023. WWE later disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it paid $20 million to settle the case. The lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice on December 26, 2023.
Nearly three years after the settlement, MLW is now on the streaming service it had planned to join in 2021.
“Wrestling should be easy to find and free to watch,” MLW Founder and CEO Court Bauer said. “We built MLW around that, no paywalls, no subscription barriers, nothing standing between a fan and the show, and Tubi shares that same fan-first philosophy at scale.”
Bauer said Tubi has 110 million monthly active users.
MLW will continue producing live special events in addition to FUSION. The weekly series remains available through VEEPS and NJPW World.
MLW lists Bauer, Paul Walter Hauser, and Bryan Walsh as executive producers of FUSION.