Thread: WWE lawyer comments on TNA Hardcore Justice

WWE lawyer comments on TNA Hardcore Justice
Posted by Roscoe De Soto on 08/06/2010 at 06:46 PM

Alfonso A. Castillo sent out the following regarding WWE Lawyer Jerry McDevitt’s comments on possible violations between TNA Wrestling and WWE, leading into this Sunday’s TNA Hardcore Justice PPV: I just posted the following on Newsday’s Steel Cage wrestling blog at Newsday.com/steelcage
I reached out earlier to World Wrestling Entertainment attorney Jerry McDevitt to ask if WWE had already, or was considering, taking legal action against Total Nonstop Action Wrestling for TNA’s promoting of this Sunday’s “Hardcore Justice” pay per view. The event is being hyped, in effect, as an ECW reunion, despite WWE owning the rights to the ECW name and intellectual property. I received this reponse from McDevitt:
“The WWE is the sole owner of the ECW marks, and as with all of WWE’s intellectual property it will be vigorously protected. TNA acts at its peril if its infringes upon WWE’s rights.” That can be taken to mean many things, but this much is apparent: TNA’s questionable usage of the ECW brand is on WWE’s legal radar. TNA could argue semantics and claim that they are not promoting an ECW reunion as much as a hardcore wrestling reunion, but that’s intellectually dishonest, at best.
TNA has done itself no favors by mentioning the E-C-W letters more than once on television in recent weeks, and featuring photos of past ECW events (photos presumably not owned by WWE.) TNA President Dixie Carter may be excited about the buzz and small uptick in ratings that the “Hardcore Justice” concept has created. But you have to wonder how quickly that excitement will turn into terror if she is served with cease and desist papers hours before the pay per view is supposed to go live.

i smell a lawsuit coming from vince what a better way to take out your nearest competitor even though tna is far from it yet.

C'mon. We can't honestly say we didn't see this coming. In the past few weeks they've been playing fast and loose with the whole ECW angle. The crowds chanting "ECW" alone was cause for concern here. This whole thing is a desperate act by a desperate company. It's actually sad considering that TNA has good YOUNG talent who know how to work in the ring. Management is a joke unfortunately.

Originally Posted by mogera

C'mon. We can't honestly say we didn't see this coming. In the past few weeks they've been playing fast and loose with the whole ECW angle. The crowds chanting "ECW" alone was cause for concern here. This whole thing is a desperate act by a desperate company. It's actually sad considering that TNA has good YOUNG talent who know how to work in the ring. Management is a joke unfortunately.

very true.they need new management and creative and get rid of the geritol people

Originally Posted by mogera

C'mon. We can't honestly say we didn't see this coming. In the past few weeks they've been playing fast and loose with the whole ECW angle. The crowds chanting "ECW" alone was cause for concern here. This whole thing is a desperate act by a desperate company. It's actually sad considering that TNA has good YOUNG talent who know how to work in the ring. Management is a joke unfortunately.

Couldn't agree more. I don't blame Heyman for not wanting to come in. A company doing 8,000 PPV buys cannot be saved. It'll just continue to float around, until it eventually ceases to exist. Some people think that 2011 could be the end.