Former WCW star Marcus “Buff” Bagwell filed a lawsuit against WWE on 8/9. The suit was filed in the United States District Court of Connecticut. He is suing over royalties from material he’s featured in on the WWE Network.
Bagwell’s complaint says that the contract he signed with WWE on June 4, 2001, regarded that “all prior understandings, negotiations, and agreements are merged into this agreement.” The argument from his side is that the contract clause means that the royalties clause in his WCW contract switched over to WWE when he signed with them and when WWE purchased WCW. They are also arguing that WWE Network revenue should be considered pay-per-view revenue and, although Bagwell never appeared on a WWE pay-per-view, featured performers on a WWE video should get five percent of the net receipts on sales of up to 150,000 units and ten percent on units that sold over 150,000. They are arguing that WWE sold videos of pay-per-view shows featuring talent from WCW.
Bagwell is also asking for residuals on footage he appears in on the WWE Network and that his contract stated that he would be due revenue from “other technology and/or technology not yet created.”
Here are some of the key notes from the complaint:
Regarding pay-per-views, “WCW shall allocate 5% of the Net Receipts paid to WCW with respect to the direct sale by WCW of WCW Pay-Per-Views to a talent royalty pool. Thereafter, WCW shall pro-rate payment to Plaintiff and all other talent appearing in such WCW Pay-Per-Views in the same proportion as was the compensation paid to Plaintiff for his appearances in the pay-per-views to the total amount paid to all talent for their appearances on the pay-per-views.” The WCW reference is regarding the WWE version of WCW that was purchased in March 2001.
Regarding home videos: “The WCW Video Product is a compilation or derivative work of multiple individual WCW Pay-Per-Views in their entirety, such as a collection of videos, e.g., a WrestleMania box set, payment to Plaintiff shall be calculated as follows: 5% of the Net Receipts paid to WCW shall comprise the talent royalty pool, which shall first be pro-rated based on the number of individual videos in the compilation, and then the payment to Plaintiff for each video shall be consistent with the royalty payment to the Plaintiff at the time each individual video was first released.”
Bagwell was released from his contract in August of 2011 after his disastrous match with Booker T on a June 2001 episode of Monday Night Raw. That match has been blamed for the beginning of the end of plans for a WCW relaunch under the WWE umbrella because that is when Vince McMahon changed his mind on the brand.
