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Just as it appeared that Brock Lesnar's lawsuit against World Wrestling Entertainment would be winding down with a planned settlement conference on 12/16, WWE fired back in a major way on 12/6 as their attorneys filed a motion for a temporary restraining order and injunction against former WWE champion Brock Lesnar in The United States District Court of Connecticut. WWE requested that the Court prevent Lesnar from continuing to wrestle for New Japan Pro Wrestling. Lesnar currently holds the IWGP championship and was scheduled to wrestle twice this weekend at TV tapings, followed by a main event appearance at what is being advertised as New Japan’s final Tokyo Dome card on 1/4/06. WWE also requested the court prevent Lesnar from making any appearances associated with any professional wrestling organization, with entering into any professional agreements with the New Japan promotion, and from continuing to breach the Settlement Agreement during the course of the case. Lesnar signed the Settlement Agreement in March 2004 when he quit WWE following Wrestlemania XX following a match against Bill Goldberg in Madison Square Garden, allowing him to leave in order to pursue a chance to play professional football. WWE filed a 25 page Memorandum explaining their position in requesting the injunction and restraining order, which Buck Woodward and I discussed in great detail earlier today in a 52 minute discussion exclusively for the PWInsider.com Elite section. In the course of the Memorandum, WWE noted that Lesnar was deposed on 11/21 and quoted Lesnar admitting that he began competing for New Japan without waiting for the court to make their ruling on his lawsuit and that WWE’s Settlement Agreement was indeed enforceable. WWE also noted that comments in Lesnar’s deposition regarding the former WWE champion's initial New Japan appearances and his relationship with the company greatly conflicted with statements made by Lesnar’s agent David Olsen to WWE and the Court in the past, intimating that Lesnar's camp had deceived both parties. WWE noted that all of these moves and statements were despite the fact that Lesnar had asked the Court release him from the Settlement Agreement in the first place, and that Lesnar had ignored the judicial process in order to do so. WWE also claimed that Lesnar made a verbal agreement with the company to return during July meetings in Stamford, CT with Vince McMahon, yet still met with New Japan President Simon Inoki in Lesnar’s home State of Minnesota to negotiate a deal. WWE claimed that they learned in the November deposition that Lesnar backed out of his WWE agreement after signing a deal with Inoki International, Inc. for New Japan and that Lesnar never informed WWE that he had done so at any point prior to the deposition. WWE also took issue with New Japan describing Lesnar as a “former WWE champion” saying that the company was playing off WWE’s intellectual properties. WWE intimated that in the future, they would reserve the right to pursue New Japan legally for their role in the Lesnar situation as well. Again, WWE noted all of this was in defiance of Lesnar's signed contractual agreements with them and in defiance to the Court. WWE also invited Lesnar to appear before the court to explain why he had agreed to wrestle for New Japan and enter into contracts with the company, ignoring both his signed agreements with WWE and the legal proceedings that Lesnar himself initiated in February 2004. As of today, Lesnar's legal counsel has yet to respond. Lesnar is currently booked to appear this weekend at New Japan TV tapings on 12/10 in Osaka against Manabu Nakanishi and 12/11 in Nagoya, where he is scheduled to face Yuji Nagata. Those matches, as well as a planned 1/4/06 IWGP title defense at New Japan’s final planned Tokyo Dome could be jeopardy, pending the Court’s decision. The planned Settlement Conference designed to attempt to put an end to Lesnar’s lawsuit has also been pushed back to 2006, so there is no end yet in sight for this lawsuit. |
| QUOTE (prof_plague @ Dec 9 2005, 09:58 PM) |
| Yeah, but was Ultimo Dragon a main eventer in the WWE who quit on bad terms to persue a career in the NFL, but sucked so much that NFL Europe didn't even want him, had problems broking his contract after the first 90 days, and then win the NJPW championship that was spread around online with a champion that was recongnized to fans who know nothing but WWE, like Scrooge, and then bring the WWE to court saying he didn't break his contract, failed, but then tried a second time, and then became NJPW champion knowing he broke the contract? |
| QUOTE (Scrooge McSuck @ Dec 10 2005, 10:15 AM) |
| And Plague can kiss my ass for that smart-ass remark he tried hiding in his long winded paragraph. |
| QUOTE (TheBigSwigg @ Dec 10 2005, 02:32 PM) |
| Lesnar's attorneys basically called bullshit and said that WWE won't lose anything from Lesnar's appearance in NJPW. Good Call |
| QUOTE (dynamite kido @ Dec 10 2005, 04:38 PM) | ||
New Japan has also publically stated that they aren't too worried about WWE's legal threats. |