Amid the news of a recent positive COVID-19 test and WWE’s handling with extra attendees at RAW, the company also found itself in another conundrum regarding their dealings with Saudi Arabia and today a response has been made by WWE lead attorney, Jerry McDevitt.
News broke yesterday morning of multiple class-action lawsuits being filed on behalf of shareholders in relation to WWE misrepresenting certain items of note with their dealings in Saudi Arabia, specifically a TV deal with the Middle East Broadcasting Company (MBC). The lawsuit includes statements from two anonymous employees, one being from MBC and another being a former wrestler who was one of the recent April releases. The statements made by both in lawsuit hit different points of note in WWE’s relationship with KSA and McDevitt issued to statements to Alfred Konuwa of Forbes denouncing the accusations made by the wrestler about the company.
“These false allegations were originally made in two suits filed by two different law firms,” McDevitt’s statement read, who then goes on to condemn the talent as “disgruntled” with “no knowledge of the facts.”
“After the Court appointed a third firm to be lead counsel, WWE provided all three law firms with specific detailed facts from the persons with actual knowledge of the situation, including the phony allegation about the plane. The first two law firms then dropped their lawsuits to avoid sanction motions, but the third firm chose to ignore the specific facts they had been provided, and instead cited an unnamed disgruntled former wrestler with no knowledge of the facts. WWE is preparing its response to the lawsuit and will be moving to have it dismissed.”
The talent, who in the lawsuit is simply named “CW-2,” made claims that happen to coincide with the initial reports on the Saudi Arabia plane incident which occurred on the evening of Oct 31, 2019. In article 319 of the lawsuit, CW-2 claims that he “spoke with a stewardess on the flight about the delay, who told him that ‘it seems someone doesn’t want us to leave the country.’ CW-2 further explained that the pilot sounded ‘distressed’ when he informed the passengers that the flight was unable to take off. CW-2 recalled that then they were told that it was because of mechanical issues, but he recalled seeing a ‘ton’ of guards wearing black ‘militia’ attire and wearing guns that were blocking their exit and ‘staring at the wrestlers.'”
In article 320 of the suit CW-2 also claims “he asked the Senior Director of Talent Relations, Mark Carrano, about what was going on and that Carrano told him that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and McMahon had gotten into an argument over late payments in connection with the June 7, 2019 Super ShowDown event. Carrano also informed CW-2 that McMahon had cut the live feed for the Crown Jewel event and that this had made the Crown Prince ‘very mad.’ (You can read the entire lawsuit filed here).
WrestleZone will be sure to keep you updated as this story develops.
