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What’s the story?
Former World Championship Wrestling stars Buff Bagwell and Raven have reportedly decided to withdraw few elements of their lawsuit against WWE, over the unpaid royalties that WWE owes them.
In case you didn’t know…
Both Bagwell and Raven have previously worked for both WCW and WWE. Earlier in the year, Raven and Bagwell filed an alleged second lawsuit against WWE, because of WWE refusing to pay them royalties after the company decided to use material featuring their matches on the WWE network.
The heart of the matter
It has been claimed that Bagwell and Raven are withdrawing certain elements of the lawsuit that they have filed against WWE. It has also been reported by PWInsider that the attorneys representing both the former WWE superstars have filed a notice in the court that claims that the pair has agreed to withdraw certain claims in the lawsuit.
Reports also claim that the withdrawn portion of the lawsuit is on “behalf of individuals who are parties to the following contracts and are part of the following alleged subclasses in this matter: (1) Titan Sports, Inc. d/b/a World Wrestling Federation Booking Contract from the signing period of January 1, 1993 until December 31, 1993; and (2) WCW, Inc. Booking Contract from the signing period of March 24, 2001, until January 1, 2004.”
This statement means that the pair is only pursuing claims for individuals who were under a WWE contract since January 1st, 1999 to January 1st, 2004.
What’s next?
It will be interesting to see where this lawsuit claim will take both the parties. Over the past one year, WWE has been sued by more than 50 former superstars, regarding various cases.
Raven has claimed that WWE owes him royalties for using footage of both his ECW and WCW work, in the WWE network. The former ECW World Champion also argued that he deserves to receive royalties on “video cassettes and discs”.
WWE has previously responded by saying that the WWE network is not a physical product; therefore royalties are not applicable regarding this situation. In 2016, WWE filed a motion in order to dismiss the lawsuit but that did very little to help Vince McMahon’s company.
Author’s take
Personally, I believe both Raven and Bagwell have a valid point regarding their statements that WWE owes them royalties over their footage. But WWE also makes sense by stating that the network is not a physical product.
However, I still think that the former WCW stars deserve some amount of royalties due to WWE using their matches on the network without giving them any sort of credits.
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