According to a previous report from PWMania.com, ESPN and its subsidiary, BAMTech, were recently approved as defendants in the lawsuit over the transition of WWE’s premium live events (PLEs) to the ESPN Unlimited tier of the new ESPN app. This addition occurred late last month and was intended to move the case to arbitration.
PWInsider.com reports that the plaintiffs have objected to the inclusion of these two parties in the lawsuit. It was also noted that on October 6, the presiding judge ruled that WWE and the other parties involved have until October 16 to respond to this objection. Furthermore, the judge stated that a decision on whether the case should proceed to arbitration will be postponed until the objection is resolved.
The lawsuit, filed in January by Michael Diesa and Rebecca Tobak, alleges that WWE misled customers regarding how to access its major PLEs after they were shifted to the ESPN Unlimited tier, starting with WrestlePalooza 2025 last year. The plaintiffs specifically chose not to sue ESPN and BAMTech due to Disney’s existing subscriber agreements, which mandate arbitration and prohibit class actions.
