WWE News: Former Champion Hits WWE With Lawsuit That Could Cost The Company Millions

WWE has been hit with different lawsuits throughout the years, and they likely get a new one coming their way each and every week. Some can be pushed aside or dismissed easily, but there is a new one that could end up being very damaging to them. Former star and WWE Tag Team Champion Rene “Dupree” Goguen has filed a lawsuit against the company over royalties for content that airs on Netflix or on WWE Network.

Known as “Rene Dupree” during his time in WWE, he was a one-time World Tag Team Champion with Sylvain Grenier as La Resistance and a one-time WWE Tag Team Champion with Kenzo Suzuki. He was with the promotion from 2003 until his requested release in 2007.

Over that time, there was a lot of footage that includes him and WWE has rights to all of that, but Dupree believes there is an issue about the royalties and how they are paid to the talents.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the lawsuit deals with how things were done in the past as opposed to how they are done now. For numerous years, WWE brought forth a lot of money from Pay-Per-View telecasts and now that has changed to streaming services as technology has advanced.

Many contracts for WWE talents included language that spoke of “technology not yet created” and how royalties are paid from them. In Dupree’s case, that would include streaming services such as Netflix and the WWE Network.

Dupree is bringing a putative class-action lawsuit against WWE, alleging that he and numerous other wrestling talents haven’t seen the money they are owed. That money comes from the WWE Network and when old shows and events were present on Netflix.

PW Insider reported that the complaint was filed in a federal court in Connecticut and it went into detail about Depree’s complaints against WWE.

In 2003, Rene Dupree signed a “booking contract” with WWE, which took ownership over a number of things relating to the superstar. Included in those properties that WWE owned were his personality, character, props, nickname, gestures, routines, themes, and gimmicks.

That’s what WWE took control over.

On their end, WWE was obligated in that contract to pay 25 percent of net receipts to a group of wrestling talents for a number of things including licensed products. Along with those licensed products, WWE had to pay out for video cassettes, CD-ROMs, videodiscs, “or other technology, including technology not yet created.”

Anything that did or would include Pay-Per-View footage of those wrestlers would result in 25 percent of net receipts needing to be paid to those wrestlers. Some box sets and other such items were paid out at just five percent.

It is quite possible that numerous other former WWE talents could end up coming forth with similar lawsuits, but WWE attorney Jerry McDevitt would not speak on that situation at this time.

McDevitt did say that there is a problem with Dupree’s lawsuit and it stems from a contract he signed in 2011 that takes away his ability to bring those types of claims against WWE. For now, McDevitt wouldn’t provide many details due to confidentiality agreements, but said that after informing Dupree’s lawyer of the situation, the lawyer’s response “indicates he did not know about” the new deal in 2011.

If something ends up coming from other former wrestlers, though, and they didn’t sign such a deal as the one Rene Dupree did, it could end up costing WWE millions.

WWE really must take this lawsuit seriously and not think it is something that is just going to end up going away. Rene Dupree has obviously put enough thought into this situation to bring a serious lawsuit over the royalties paid to talents from Netflix and WWE Network. It may not end up causing WWE to go bankrupt, but it could cost them millions if they’re not careful.

[Image via WWE]