Professional wrestling won’t ever be hotter than it was within the late ’90s and early 2000s, nevertheless it appears that is true for wrestling lawsuits as effectively. Over at Wrestling Inc, David Bixenspan not too long ago wrote concerning the chaos that surrounded WWE’s licensing offers as THQ, Acclaim, and Jakks all fought for positioning within the fallout of WCW swapping its online game licensing from THQ to EA.
Professional Wrestling Lawsuits Used To Be Higher
Whereas all we keep in mind is WCW video games getting into the bathroom as WWE video games acquired to have the AKI improvement group swap over from making WCW/nWo Revenge to classics like WWF No Mercy, it seems WWE staff and contractors have been within the shadows turning this into a pleasant story of backroom dealings. Whereas this story may not have the intercourse and medicines that make so most of the Darkish Facet of the Ring tales, effectively, darkish, it has so many different hallmarks of a superb lawsuit.
You’ve acquired unreliable narrators (the place you might be within the strategy of a lawsuit tends to try this), discovery resulting in new plot twists (a WWE worker is the third man!), bizarre vendettas inflicting extra chaos than is important (Vince McMahon allegedly not wanting WCW earning profits off his model in any approach), and so forth. On the coronary heart of the story are James Bell and Stanley Shenker. Bell was a WWE worker, and Shenker was a roaming contractor who handled licenses. These two crafted a plot that will result in years of lawsuits and new twists.
Nonetheless, my favourite half may nonetheless be the late point out of ECW and the way that firm got here to play a really small function within the fallout of all of it as Acclaim tried to discover a new wrestling firm. It so completely encapsulates every part about ECW’s background as a debt-ridden firm that attempted so onerous to remain afloat with accounting smoke and mirrors.
This has all come full circle in a approach with THQ Nordic quickly to be publishing AEW Struggle Eternally, however always remember it was once higher.
