Update On Raven And Buff Bagwell’s WWE Network Lawsuit

When the WWE Network first opened up shop a lot of questions remained unanswered when it came to wrestler pay offs. Many wrestlers were worried their pay-per-view bonuses would take a huge hit due to the new $9.99 structure of the Network where all PPVs are included in the price. It’s great for fans but might hurt the wallets of some of their favorite superstars.

It turns out that it not only affected current stars but wrestlers from WWE’s past as well. Buff Bagwell and Raven are currently two former stars who are demanding compensation from WWE because of the issues of royalties the WWE Network presents.

The Observer noted that the two former employees of WCW and WWE are suing WWE for unpaid royalties and the case keeps getting more complicated. WWE is trying to assert that they don’t owe any payments to Buff or Raven because their contracts say that royalties are only paid out in the case of a direct sale to customers.

Direct sales would mean anything from PPV buys to DVDs, but the pay-per-view and DVD market has all but dried up because everything is on the WWE Network.

However, Raven and his attorneys are trying to argue that his contract explicitly said he is to be paid royalties on “video cassettes, videodiscs, CD Rom, or other technology including technology not yet created.” It’s that last part that is really the smoking gun for Raven’s case.

If WWE loses this case and is forced to start paying out royalties for the WWE Network, it could set a major precedent for years to come. WWE is still holding to the story that no product is being sold to customers and fans are only paying for the chance to watch content on a subscription service.

But, if Raven and Bagwell’s attorneys pull through WWE might have to institute the old “royalty rate” system they used to calculate DVD and PPV pay-outs. WWE would have to calculate how many seconds a performer was on a program divided by the total amount of profit within a fixed amount of royalty money. It could get complicated to say the least.