Anthem Sports and Entertainment, owners of Impact Wrestling, filed a motion on November 1 to dismiss the lawsuit brought against them by Jeff Jarrett over the usage and trademarks for Global Force Wrestling and the GFW Amped PPV specials.
Jarrett and Global Force Entertainment LLC (aka Global Force Wrestling) filed a 26-page lawsuit back in August in Tennessee court claiming Anthem violated “state and federal trademark infringements” in regards to the GFW name and violated his property rights by using his name/photo/likeness and pushed further false advertising.
Anthem argued in the motion that Tennessee courts should have no jurisdiction over a company that is based in Canada and practices all of its business outside of Canada. The company also stated that Jarrett signed a non-disclosure agreement when he was brought back into the company and that any disagreements would have to be tried in New York, not Tennessee. It is also argued that as then Chief Creative Officer, it was Jarrett’s decision to use GFW content that he is now suing the company over. Anthem claims they made zero profit over the distribution of the GFW Amped content over PPV and DVD.
Regarding the GFW Amped content, Anthem claims Jarrett negotiated a deal where GFW would merge with Anthem Sports allowing Jarrett to obtain a job position with a “large salary” and that part of the deal included getting his wife (Karen Jarrett) a job, along with an ownership stake in Anthem. According to Anthem, the deal also included an attempt to monetize the GFW programming that was previously filmed in Las Vegas years earlier that Jarrett was unable to sell. Anthem argues they did all voiceovers and post-production work to get the footage broadcast ready and packaged the content for DVD release.
Anthem’s main argument in the motion is that per the agreement with Jarrett, the merger didn’t end up working out and that he was officially terminated in October of 2017 and that any usage of the GFW Amped content failed to turn a profit. It is also mentioned that only one of the GFW Amped specials ran, as scheduled, following Jarrett’s dismissal from the company as it had been previously scheduled out to do so.