On Thursday, a man named Anthony Duane Wilson filed a lawsuit against WWE and AEW in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Youngstown. Wilson charges each company with “plagiarism, market damages, product damages, personal damages and financial damages.”
Wilson’s filing was mostly handwritten, and he didn’t go into specifics, but he claims that “WWE, its contractors, and employees have on multiple dates used my creative works without permission, infringing on my wrestling gimmicks, names, slogans and likeness.”
Wilson also claims that he planned to start his own pro wrestling company and had approached “members of the Bullet Club to join me in the venture of starting my company.” Wilson did not go into specifics, but he alleged, “They stole the plans from me and my social media pages and cut me out without giving credit or the portion I am entitled to as the creator.”
Wilson is seeking, among other things, control of AEW. He claims in the filing that the situation has caused him “market damages, product damages, personal damages, financial damages. WWE an (sic) AEW are still using infringing works of mine, claiming they created these things and are not crediting me or paying for them, Many of which are not for sale. This will follow me my entire career. This has cost me work outside of professional wrestling and inside professional wrestling. These things have cost me fans an (sic) income. Several of these infringements were done maliciously to damage my reputation an (sic) career, attempting to embarrass me or waste my time. I’m a writer an (sic) professional wrestler, my creative works are my livelyhood (sic). From my research, I was informed if you cut out an original partner or the creator control of the company belongs to the exiled party. I’m seeking control of AEW an (sic) removal of stolen works, a public apology an (sic) a financial settlement for damages, my works an (sic) career will see until I retire. WWE Board Chair, WWE Stock for freelance work an (sic) business tactics of mine. Return all ships and plunder.”
Wilson is also requesting $250,000,000 in monetary damages.
As of today, neither WWE nor AEW had been served with the lawsuit. It will be interesting to see if the lawsuit moves forward.
