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Although this was expected as soon as Flosports filed their amended lawsuit against WWNLive, WWN's attempts to have the lawsuit thrown out were rejected by the court on 11/30. They will be able to argue their points again, once they specifically respond to the amended version of the suit. WWN is expected to file a counter-suit.
Interesting to note that despite being shut down, the Floslam website has not been updated to reflect that the service is done. In a podcast he recorded after being let go by the service, writer Brent Brookhouse admitted that he had tried in vain to get management to drop the price point of the service and attempted to find other promotions for the service to work with after they cut ties with WWNLive, but management would never sign off on anything. Brookhouse admitted that after the WWN lawsuit was filed by Flosports, there was nothing, from a fan's perspective, that he would have wanted to subscribe to the service for, gave management options to fix things and basically was hired to do one job and trapped doing another.
In a story that completely infuriated me listening to the podcast, Brookhouse stated that he was preparing to drive three hours to EVOLVE's events to cover them for the service when he began getting messages from fans asking about the lawsuit Flosports had filed days before - so the service didn't even inform their point person in charge of creating content for the service about the lawsuit before it broke publicly. That basically meant Flosports would have been putting Brookhouse into a position to drive three hours and then walk into a show where he would have been seen as the "enemy" from the company that was now suing WWNLive, without any knowledge of the situation. In the end, Brookhouse was told not to attend the shows (as Flosports decided to pull EVOLVE's live streams hours before they went on the air) but the fact that no one thought to inform him privately is WCW-level ridiculousness.
What really, truly angered me, was hearing Brookhouse recount that he learned the platform was shut down when people began contacting after hearing the reports via Twitter. So, the guy (who has one young child and another baby on the way) found out he was fired from a job that sought him out from social media, well before he was able to actually get someone from the actual company to give him the respect of telling him what was going on. Actually, that sounds worse than even the worst WCW stupidity, but what should I expect from a company that responded to an email from me asking what they intended to do to replace WWNLive content so people didn't cancel their subs by actually CANCELING MY SUBSCRIPTION instead of responding to the question.
Gabe Sapolsky has continued to work backstage at WWE NXT TV tapings, so if anyone expected that lawsuit to have a ripple effect on WWN's relationship with WWE, that has not happened.
WWN's EVOLVE promotion has a pair of events this weekend, both of which will air on The Fite App, which you can download for free for your cell phone or mobile device by clicking here. Fite can be streamed from your phone to Samsung Smart TVs and recently debuted a Roku channel as well. The app is HIGHLY recommended by yours truly and is free to download as well with tons of weekly free programming, including ROH's weekly TV series, Booker T's Reality of Wrestling and more.
EVOLVE returns to Queens, NY this Friday 12/9 with WWNLive champion Keith Lee defending against WALTER, Matt Riddle vs. Fred Yehi in a bout where they can be no rope breaks, EVOLVE Tag Team champions Jaka & Tracy Williams vs. James Drake & Anthony Henry, EVOLVE champion Zack Sabre Jr. vs. DJZ, Darby Allin vs. Austin Theory, AR Fox vs. Jason Kincaid, plus Jarek 1:20, Shane Mercer, Stephen Wolf, Joey Lynch. William Regal will be signing at the event as he's in town to do a seminar the day before for the company.
Sunday's 12/10 Melrose, MA event will feature EVOLVE champion Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Jaka, Matt Riddle vs. WALTER, WWN Champion Keith Lee vs. Tracy Williams with Stokely Hathaway vs. Darby Allin in a non-title bout, FIP champion Fred Yehi vs. Austin Theory, AR Fox vs. DJ Z, Jason Kincaid vs. Jarek 1:20 plus James Drake, Anthony Henry, Shane Mercer, Stephen Wolf and Brandon Watts (who is awesome) appearing. The idea is that Watts is getting a tryout match, which I am actually offended hearing, even if it's a storyline as that guy is an asset to any promoter smart enough to book him.
Daisuke Sekimoto will be coming in from Japan to work for the WWNLive umbrella events in New Orleans. He's pretty awesome.
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