According to a new report from Wrestlenomics, the defendants (All Elite Wrestling) in the class action complaint filed by Kevin Kelly (Kevin Foote) and the Tate Twins (Brandon and Brent Tate) are now seeking to move their lawsuits to federal court.
The report notes the reason, per new federal court filings in that Kelly and the Tate Twins are seeking the move is they are citing multiple factors and outlining AEW’s payment to talent and wrestlers, according to new federal court filings.
This past August, Kelly and the Tate Twins filed a class action complaint in the Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia against All Elite Wrestling, Tony Khan, and Ian Riccaboni.
The twins (plaintiffs) argue that AEW has misclassified its wrestlers and talent as independent contractors while also alleging wrongful termination.
Kelly’s lawsuit alleges defamation from Ian Riccaboni and AEW, resulting from Riccaboni making disparaging comments on a discord channel regarding Kelly being involved with QAnon conspiracies. Kelly is seeking monetary damages, claiming that AEW breached his contract and that the situation has made it difficult for him to find work elsewhere. AEW fired Kelly this past March.
The Tate Twins were fired by Tony Khan back in April. Khan publicly stated Brandon and Brendon were released because they no-showed events. The brothers later said they no-showed due to miscommunication between themselves and management after they were booked to fly out of a different airport than what they would normally use. The twins claim they no-showed events is at the center of their defamation suit against Khan and AEW.
The plaintiffs filed the complaint back on September 6 and the defendants responded on Friday with a request to move the case to the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. It was said that the plaintiffs plan to respond by requesting the case be returned to the Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia.
“We plan to move to remand,” the plaintiffs’ attorney Stephen New told POST Wrestling and Wrestlenomics when reached for comment on Friday.
Back on September 27, we repoted that the Judge in the lawsuit against AEW has approved the sealing of their talent contracts (which are submitted as exhibits) and the redactions in their complaint that references their contracts. Thurston also notes that it would have otherwise been the first time any AEW talent contracts were made public.
Wrestlenomics notes the Attorneys representing AEW, Khan, and Riccaboni argue that the case meets multiple thresholds under the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA), which applies “to any class action before or after the entry of a class certification order by the court with respect to that action.” Also, per Wrestlenomics’ report, factors needed to qualify under CAFA include federal jurisdiction for class actions where the amount in controversy exceeds $5 million in the aggregate for the entire class and putative class, containing at least 100 members, and that any member of the putative class is a citizen of a state different than that of the defendant(s).
The report provides how the misclassification issue is divided into two classes. all It notes that “all current and former Talent”, presumably covering non-wrestler talent, and secondly, “all current and former Wrestlers”, covering wrestlers. The classes would cover all talent and wrestlers who worked for AEW from September 1, 2022, to the present.
A written declaration from AEW’s Senior Vice President of Business Strategy, Chris Harrington states that between the dates in question, 290 individuals provided services for AEW as wrestlers or non-wrestling talent under independent contractor agreements and paid those members “more than $60,000,000 in the aggregate,” providing rare insight into AEW’s talent compensation. Furthermore, it was stated that the figure would work out to roughly $207,000 paid to each wrestler and talent over the two-year period, although that’s an average, and there’s likely disparity in compensation across talent and wrestlers.
Wrestlenomics included the following disclosure at the end of their report.
Disclosure: Brandon Thurston operates and solely owns Wrestlenomics LLC. Chris Harrington originally started using the Wrestlenomics name in 2013 and he and Thurston co-hosted the Wrestlenomics Radio podcast together from 2017 to 2018. Harrington has no ownership or role in Wrestlenomics today.
Harrington adds that ten members of the class hold residency in the state of Pennsylvania, which equals 3.4% of the class. Defendants Brandon & Brent Tate are residents of Tennessee. Ian Riccaboni is a resident of Pennsylvania. Adding to the diversity in jurisdiction issue, AEW is a registered corporation in both Delaware & Florida.
If AEW were to reclassify those members as employees, Harrington writes in the declaration, the company would incur a tax liability of “at least 9.95% of the pay rendered to Putative Class Members, meaning more than $5,970,000 in the aggregate.” As well, AEW would “incur costs in connection with employee benefits of approximately $18,125 annually per employee, meaning $5,256,250 per year in the aggregate.”
Along with an estimated 30% allocated for attorney fees, AEW lists an estimate of $14,594,125 in expenses associated and greatly exceeding CAFA’s minimum threshold of $5 million.
POST Wrestling and Wrestlenomics reached out to AEW’s attorneys and public relations representatives for comment and will update this report if they respond.