Major League Wrestling has secured a free streaming home for its flagship weekly series, MLW Fusion. Starting Thursday, Sept. 17 at 8 p.m. ET, new episodes will stream live on Tubi at the same time each week, placing the promotion in front of 110 million monthly active users.
The deal was originally set to happen five years ago, but it collapsed just before launch. According to the report, WWE allegedly pressured Tubi into canceling the agreement by leveraging its Fox relationship; WWE’s SmackDown aired on Fox at the time. The dispute later ended with WWE paying MLW $20 million in a settlement. For a mid-size wrestling promotion, that legal outcome did more than close a chapter—it quantified the cost of distribution interference while freeing MLW to rebuild.
Free as the growth strategy
For streaming and sports-media buyers, the arrangement is a clear FAST play: use a free, ad-supported platform for reach and appointment viewing, then route committed fans toward higher-value products.
- Weekly live slot: Thursday night programming gives Tubi a recurring audience anchor.
- Broad distribution: Tubi’s 110 million monthly active users outscale most subscription wrestling homes.
- Premium funnel: MLW’s pay-per-view events remain on Live Nation’s Veeps, keeping a paid tier intact.
- Extended reach: Episodes also run on Veeps and NJPW World, so the Tubi window is not exclusive.
MLW’s reset
The promotion has repositioned since the original deal fell apart. Paul Walter Hauser joined Court Bauer and Bryan Walsh as executive producer. MLW signed with Artists First for representation in March 2025, then moved its headquarters from New York to Charleston, South Carolina, in fall 2025 and partnered with Danny McBride’s Don Gato Tequila. The series relaunched in May 2026.
Bauer, MLW’s founder and CEO, framed the pitch around fandom: “Wrestling should be easy to find and free to watch,” he said, adding that MLW was built with “no paywalls, no subscription barriers” and that Tubi shares that philosophy.
What to watch
The question for ScreenStat readers is whether live wrestling can convert free reach into meaningful business. If MLW Fusion builds a consistent Thursday audience on Tubi, it becomes a useful benchmark for other mid-size sports properties weighing FAST distribution against subscription homes. The more consequential number will be whether that free audience converts into pay-per-view buyers on Veeps or measurable ad and sponsorship revenue over the next few quarters.
The placement also adds a weekly combat-sports title to Tubi’s FAST slate. For media planners, it is a useful test of live niche inventory inside an on-demand, ad-supported environment and a reminder that distribution decisions are as much about reach and audience behavior as rights fees.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
