Why Dave Meltzer Says UFC Class Action Lawsuit Could Be Bad News For WWE

An antitrust lawsuit against UFC filed in 2014 has officially been ruled a class action lawsuit. As a result, nearly 1,200 fighters are now eligible to sue UFC for alleged unfair business practices, with the current plaintiffs seeking between $800 million and $1.6 billion in damages.

During the latest "Wrestling Observer Radio," Dave Meltzer broke down how this could affect WWE in the wake of the Endeavor merger.

"The judge authorized it as a class action lawsuit and basically did an 80-page ruling that was pretty devastating if you read it," Meltzer said. "Basically said the UFC used coercive tactics to keep the pay low. Among those things are signing one-sided contracts that don't allow the people to go anywhere else, limiting free agency, and keeping competitors down, and buying up competitors."

He added, "The judge was pretty specific. It was pretty much like the judge in the MLW case. It was pretty negative when it comes to the big company and having 90% market share and abusing that power to keep salaries low."

Meltzer noted there are more similarities than differences between this UFC lawsuit and the one MLW has against WWE. The biggest difference is that WWE has AEW as a major competitor now, whereas UFC doesn't have a current rival.

"The risks of trial are very bad because, for Endeavor, if this goes to trial and they lose, it pretty much guarantees that the ruling that would come out of the trial would be used against WWE, so they would have a second lawsuit because they've merged," Meltzer claimed. "So it behooves them to settle out of court. But if they settle out of court, it's going to be a lot of money."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Wrestling Observer Radio" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.