00:00A lawsuit filed against Cody Rhodes, WWE have a new TV show, the first trailer for the Mr
00:06McMahon Netflix docu-series and more.
00:10I'm Oli Davis, and this is the WrestleTalk News.
00:18Get exclusive videos over on our Patreon.
00:20The wrestling calendar has many different seasons.
00:23There's the Road to WrestleMania, there's the All In All Out Shake It All About Fortnite,
00:28and next week we'll be getting WWE's season premiere of their shows that have never once
00:32stopped broadcasting.
00:34But this week, this week, has a different theme.
00:38Everyone's suing everyone else week!
00:40Following former AEW commentator Kevin Kelly and the Tate Twins, who play Dalton Castle's
00:45The Boys, filing a lawsuit against AEW alleging defamation and trying to get its talent classified
00:50as employees rather than independent contractors, that's when you know you've made it Tony
00:55Khan when you wrestlers try to unionise, Cody Rhodes, WWE and their merchandising
01:00partner Fanatics have been hit with a lawsuit over their use of the American Nightmare phrase.
01:06Now, this sort of stuff happens all the time, and typically goes nowhere.
01:10WWE are too big of a machine to wage a legal battle against, and sometimes the parties
01:15filing the claims are just chancers who don't actually have a case.
01:20But this one is different, as it's by the Boston punk band American Nightmare, who had
01:26already agreed how WWE and Cody would use the American Nightmare phrase, which they
01:30claim WWE has now gone back on.
01:34According to Post Wrestling, this isn't just an allegation of trademark infringement,
01:38i.e. using the American Nightmare phrase, it's breach of contract and intentional
01:43interference with contractual relations.
01:46The band registered the trademark back in 2016 for music, clothing and apparel and entertainment
01:52services, mainly live music performances.
01:55Cody filed for the trademark in 2019 for wrestling related activities.
02:00This was a period of time where Cody seemingly couldn't use any of his own names, as WWE
02:05also reportedly prevented him from having the surname Rhodes.
02:08Cody's trademark filing started a back and forth between him and the band, which was
02:13settled in March 2021, while Cody was still under contract with AEW, where they agreed
02:18Cody would make a one-off payment of $30,000 and he could use American Nightmare on his
02:23merchandise under the condition that such items prominently used Rhodes' name, likeness
02:30or wrestling related imagery in a size at least 75% larger than the American Nightmare
02:36text.
02:37This was so it was clear that the American Nightmare merchandise was for Cody Rhodes
02:40the wrestler, not American Nightmare the band.
02:44But now American Nightmare claim WWE is selling merchandise through fanatics that doesn't
02:49meet the 75% size Cody likeness they agreed upon, and that fans have turned up to American
02:54Nightmare gigs wearing Cody American Nightmare shirts, showing there is confusion between
02:59the two.
03:00Confusion that's backed up further by fans often tagging American Nightmare the band
03:05on social media posts instead of American Nightmare the Cody.
03:09Apparently the band's legal representation first contacted Rhodes' lawyer in 2022 about
03:13the infringing crown design, but didn't get a reply.
03:17They reached out again in April and May this year, sending cease and desist letters.
03:21WWE replied to them at the end of May, stating fanatics had passed this over to them.
03:26The band are seeking damages of at least $150,000, as well as treble damages of up to $300,000
03:34related to federal trademark infringement.
03:37But as a famed Eastern Mystic once said, karma is a bitch.
03:41Because WWE have been serving independent wrestlers for years with cease and desist
03:46letters on far weaker cases, and also one with Bryan Danielson just last month.
03:51AEW's Danielson had previously said he would avoid doing the Yes chant because when he
03:56was leaving WWE, Kevin Dunn politely asked him to respect the company's intellectual
04:01property, even the ones that might not be legally enforceable.
04:06But back on the 29th July, Danielson decided to test that, filing to trademark the Yes
04:10chant he first got over in WWE for wrestling entertainment purposes.
04:15In an interview with Luke James Chats conducted in August, Danielson revealed he received
04:19an email shortly after from WWE.
04:22I applied for it, but then I got, it wasn't necessarily a cease and desist, I got some
04:27sort of legal letter from WWE.
04:29It's really weird because my manager just texted me and said, hey this thing is available,
04:33do you want to get it?
04:34And I was like, how much does it cost?
04:36And it wasn't that much.
04:37And I was like, ok sure.
04:39And then shortly after that, I got an email from WWE saying like, oh this is infringing
04:43on this or that or whatever.
04:45And I'm like, dude, I'm not trying to sell anybody anything.
04:49But you can't cover lawsuits and wrestling without talking about Vince McMahon.
04:55Janelle Grant accused McMahon of sexual assault and trafficking back in January, leading to
04:59McMahon resigning from WWE.
05:01The two sides have been engaged in legal back and forth ever since, but Grant's lawsuit
05:06had to be put on pause because the US government is conducting their own investigation into
05:11McMahon.
05:12With that part paused, Grant's team filed a petition in July seeking medical records
05:17from Dr Karlan Kolka and Peak Wellness, where she alleges Vince sent her for treatments
05:22that weren't disclosed to her.
05:24In response, Kolka filed a complaint against Grant, accusing her of a smear campaign against
05:29him and that he had suffered damages as a result.
05:32Post Wrestling has now reported, though, that Kolka has withdrawn the complaint.
05:36Grant's attorney claimed it was only ever a baseless motion, filed simply as yet another
05:40frivolous attempt to intimidate Ms Grant.
05:43Yeah, we're probably going to need a season two on that McMahon documentary series.
05:48But before then, we actually need a season one.
05:50Which has been four years and two separate resignations in the making.
05:53And now Netflix have released its first official trailer.
05:56It begins with a sit-down interview clip of Vince, where he talks about others portraying
06:00him as a bad guy, but nobody really knows him.
06:03It continues with talking heads from the biggest names ever in WWE, like Rock the Dwayne Johnson,
06:08Hulk Hogan, Stone Cold Steve Austin and… is that just a blank shot?
06:18And also Bruce Prichard and Eric Bischoff.
06:20That's going to be objective.
06:22It then mostly goes chronologically through his wrestling career.
06:25Not his abusive childhood under his stepfather, nor his failed non-wrestling projects before
06:30he took over the WWF.
06:31There's a link to my Fall of the McMahons video in the video description below that
06:34tells that whole story.
06:36And then also notes his scandals, the steroid trial, Chris Benoit's murder-suicide and
06:41then, yes, the recent lawsuits and allegations of sexual assault.
06:46The docu-series is said to be six one-hour episodes long.
06:49If told chronologically, his scandals over the last two years will probably be covered
06:54in the final show.
06:55While the project initially started out as a collaboration between Netflix and WWE, with
07:00WWE announcing it in their Q3 2020 earnings call, and Vince conducting numerous interviews
07:05and claiming he wanted a warts and all portrayal, this stopped when the Washington Post first
07:10broke their story in 2022, and Vince reportedly didn't provide any further interviews.
07:15PWInsider is also reporting that Vince didn't have any say over the final edit of the show.
07:21Bret Hart is also shown as a talking head in the docu-series, where the producers presumably
07:25edited around him, mostly shitting on Bill Goldberg.
07:28But we won't have to wait until the show's 25th September premiere date to see him again,
07:33because Bret has just been announced for Monday's episode of Raw in Calgary.
07:38Jackie Redmond announced the news, and Triple H said you definitely won't want to miss
07:42this for Raw's season premiere.
07:44Hart hasn't been seen on WWE's screens since sitting at ringside for 2022's Clash
07:49at the Castle show.
07:50Seeing that he's CM Punk's favourite wrestler, expect Drew McIntyre to kill him.
07:54Monday Night Raw will be getting another season premiere just under four months later, as
07:58the show moves from the USA Network to Netflix on January 6th.
08:02Roman Reigns and Paul Heyman made their first public appearance together since WrestleMania
08:0640 on Thursday to talk about the move, and WWE's larger business success at Bloomberg's
08:13Power Players Summit.
08:14Sounds like a tag team name.
08:16Heyman spoke about how WWE has doubled its profits since 2019 thanks to Nick Khan, Paul
08:21Levesque, Roman Reigns, who is the biggest box office draw in sports entertainment history,
08:25and the $5 billion deal with Netflix.
08:27It's been speculated that WWE could get edgier with the move, as they will no longer
08:32be under broadcast TV's censorship restrictions.
08:35Not that The Rock ever cared, but Roman said at the Summit he thinks WWE needs to stick
08:39to their values and morals they have in place already, and the culture they have now, to
08:44appeal to the widest audience.
08:46Heyman, the creator of Extreme Championship Wrestling, was more flexible, saying it will
08:50all depend on what the storylines call for.
08:53But it might just come down to analytical driven data.
08:56Reigns discussed about how much more viewership data they'll have access to by being on
09:00Netflix.
09:01They can constantly use that to decide what's working and what isn't.
09:05Will WWE still have a foot, and kind of one arm, in traditional broadcast TV, with SmackDown
09:10moving to the USA Network and NXT premiering on the CW next month?
09:14And now WrestleVotes is reporting another new show.
09:17WWE is set to announce a live primetime special on NBC in the next few days.
09:23While the location remains unknown, sources say tickets are set to go on sale next Friday.
09:27We've heard some internal speculation about a Saturday night in December.
09:31This will be WWE's first primetime NBC special since the 2nd August 2008.
09:38Unfortunately for AEW, despite a very good all-out go-home show with Hangman Page setting
09:43fire to Swerve Strickland's childhood home, their traditional TV figures are struggling,
09:49with Wednesday's show drawing 660,000 viewers and a .19 rating in the 18-49 demographic.
09:56This is down from the last few weeks near 700,000 and .23 figures, and is concerning
10:01due to the lack of competition now the Olympics is over.
10:04Raw was also down this week, drawing its lowest viewership since January, but that is more
10:08explainable as it was on Labour Day.
10:11Tony Khan remains optimistic, though, as he's said in the all-out media call that AEW fans
10:16spend the most money per month on streaming video compared to fans of any other sporting
10:20league in the world.
10:22A good sign for any current rights negotiations who might want streaming content, but Warner
10:27Brothers Max Discovery Cough.
10:31And that AEW and WBD have lots of details to work out, but there is a lot of excitement
10:36on each side.
10:37And that, if they can pull everything off, he believes AEW could become the second most
10:43profitable wrestling company in the history of the wrestling business.
10:48Now go watch mine and Luke's AEW All Out predictions ahead of tomorrow's show.
10:52Thanks for watching.
10:53I'll see you next time.
10:54Bye.
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