WWE: CM Punk & Roman Reigns Appearances and WWE IC Title Open Challenge Match Set for 3/30 WWE RAW Show, ESPN Files Motion To Intervene In Class Action Lawsuit Against WWE Over PLE Access, New Trademark

CM Punk & Roman Reigns Appearances and WWE IC Title Open Challenge Match Announced for March 30th WWE RAW Show

WWE announced one new match and one new segment for the card of next week’s WWE RAW show on March 30th at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York.

In regards to the new match, this was announced to be a WWE Intercontinental Championship Open Challenge match of mystery opponent vs. Penta (c).

In regards to the new segment, this was announced to be WWE World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk and Roman Reigns to make an appearance on the show.

Current card for March 30th WWE RAW show:

  • WWE World Tag Team Championship Street Fight match – The Vision (Austin Theory & Logan Paul) vs. The Usos (Jimmy & Jey Uso) (c)
  • WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship – Lyra Valkyria & Bayley vs. The Irresistible Forces (Nia Jax & Lash Legend)
  • Bayley vs. Raquel Rodriguez
  • Brock Lesnar to appear
  • WWE World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk and Roman Reigns to appear

ESPN Files Motion To Intervene In Class Action Lawsuit Against WWE Over PLE Access

As noted before, a new class action lawsuit was filed this past January against WWE and ESPN alleging that the two companies had committed deceptive marketing practices regarding issues involving WWE moving their Premium Live Events (PLEs) to ESPN’s new ESPN+ streaming service. These claims revolved around marketing from both WWE and ESPN telling all existing ESPN subscribers that they would have access to WWE PLEs for free when that was not the case for those with certain cable or streaming providers.

Post Wrestling and Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston reported that ESPN had filed a motion on Friday to intervene in the class action lawsuit against WWE.

In the motion, ESPN wants to compel arbitration to resolve the issue.

Thurston reported that the plaintiffs did not specifically name ESPN as a defendant in their class action lawsuit as a way to get around the arbitration clause in the subscriber agreement.


WWE Files New Trademark

WWE filed a new trademark for “Club WWE” on March 27th for membership club-purposes to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Portion of trademark filing:

IC 035: Membership club services in the nature of providing discounts and special offers to members in the field of retail sales, special event planning, marketing, and subscriptions; Administration of a discount program for enabling participants to obtain discounts on goods and services through use of a membership; Advertising services; providing consumer product and services information via the Internet and mobile applications; Membership club services, namely, providing on-line information to members in the fields of branding, business development, business marketing, and marketing.