The Bloodline is without a doubt one of the most successful factions in WWE history and imagery associated with The Bloodline has become iconic over the last few years. The groups entrance, poses and signature hand gesture have all become well known to wrestling fans around the world, but a lawsuit has been filed which alleges that a famous sequence associated with The Bloodline infringes on copyrighted work.
PWInsider is reporting that Nathaniel Tatha-Nanandji, who promoted WCWA Wrestling in Arkansas, filed a lawsuit against WWE, TKO, 2K Games Inc. and other associated 2K companies. The lawsuit was filed with the United States District Court for the Western Division of Arkansas, Fayetteville Division on 12/30/25.
The lawsuit alleges that Tatha-Nanandji “is responsible for the creative direction, booking, staging, filming, and publishing of WCWA’s events and audiovisual content” and that he developed a “distinctive, repeatable visual sequence” for a faction known as Tier 1 in WCWA.
The lawsuit describes the sequence as follows:
a. The entrance, in-ring, or ringside action comes to a deliberate halt, and the Tier 1 members converge into a purposeful, hierarchical formation oriented toward the hard camera or primary broadcast camera, with the formation staged for frontal capture in a locked-off or minimally moving wide or mid-wide shot, ensuring all performers remain fully visible within the frame.
b. The group enters a brief but intentional pause, holding position while the camera framing remains fixed and centered, allowing audience attention to settle on the assembled faction and establishing the formation as a posed visual configuration rather than incidental movement.
c. A designated leader or cueing performer initiates the sequence by raising one arm upward as a visual cue, typically captured in a low-angle medium or medium-close framing that visually elevates the cueing performer within the composition while maintaining contextual visibility of supporting members.
d. Other members follow in staggered but coordinated succession, each raising one arm with a single finger extended, as the camera holds its position or slightly widens to preserve group coherence, allowing the synchronized gesture to complete fully within frame and emphasizing collective participation rather than individual motion.
e. In post-beatdown or domination contexts, the camera remains deliberately positioned, most commonly in a locked-off or minimally adjusted wide or mid-wide frontal angle from ringside or hard-camera orientation, to include the subdued opponent within the same frame as the assembled Tier 1 members. The opponent is visually subordinated within the composition, while the faction occupies the dominant, upright portion of the frame, ensuring that hierarchy, submission, and control are conveyed through spatial and camera-based composition rather than motion.
f. The sequence culminates in a sustained, static, camera-facing tableau, commonly framed symmetrically and held for a perceptible duration without camera movement, functioning as a recurring visual punctuation mark that conveys hierarchy, loyalty, submission, and collective authority, among related expressions of unified control, before the sequence is released and the scene transitions.
It was noted that Tatha-Nanandji is not claiming ownership of any specific gesture, or pose, but the sequence itself which was created in April of 2019 and never abandoned.
Two different videos from WCWA events were listed in the lawsuit for events titled “Monsters and Men: Xander Gold vs Brian Cage Oct ’19” and “WCWA Rematch: Purge 1 Double D vs Dusty Gold,” which were copyrighted and proof of those copyrights was also provided. The copyrights were reportedly issued by the United States Copyright Office in September 2025.
Tatha-Nanandji alleges that an independent wrestler who is not named in the lawsuit, performed for WCWA and later appeared on WWE SmackDown, asked WCWA for footage that WWE personnel could use for review. Tatha-Nanandji oversaw preparation of the material and provided it when the wrestler asked for it, but he’s claiming that the sequence he created was being used on WWE programming weeks after the material was provided. It’s also being alleged that an unnamed WWE employee attended a WCWA event in March of 2019 and maintained contact with Tatha-Nanandji through 2021.
In the lawsuit Tatha-Nanandji claims, “Through these direct and indirect channels, including internal scouting review and publicly accessible WCWA content on platforms such as Facebook and YouTube, WWE and its affiliates had a reasonable opportunity to view, study, and copy the Tier 1 Audiovisual Sequence prior to and during Defendants’ development and exploitation of substantially similar audiovisual content.”
The lawsuit also alleges the following:
“On information and belief, beginning in or around September 2021, after Plaintiff had created and publicly used the Tier 1 Audiovisual Sequence, WWE introduced a visually and narratively similar ritualized audiovisual sequence for its “Bloodline” faction (the “Bloodline Sequence”).
As deployed in WWE programming, the Bloodline Sequence consists of a coordinated audiovisual progression that includes, in combination:
a. Bloodline members aligning together in a deliberate, hierarchical formation oriented toward the primary broadcast camera;
b. A brief, intentional timing pause during which the formation is held;
c. A lead cue initiated by a designated member, followed by staggered but synchronized arm raises by the remaining members, each extending a single finger upward; and
d. A sustained, static, camera-facing tableau functioning as the climactic moment of acknowledgment within the segment.”
It’s also alleged that WWE’s “narrative framework” for The Bloodline sequence is “a narrative function comparable to that performed by WCWA’s Tier1 Audiovisual Sequence.” Photos of the two sequences were provided as evidence as well as breakdowns of the camera shots. Regarding 2K Games, the lawsuit claims that WWE licensed the sequence to the company for their WWE 2K game series.
Tatha-Nanandji claims that he first became aware of the similarities in January of 2024 after reviewing the two sequences and informed the defendants in October of 2025.
A jury trial is being demanded by Tatha-Nanandji and he is seeking a declaration that the defendants infringed on his copyrights from the WCWA material, and a permanent injunction which would prevent them from continuing to do so. He is also looking to prevent the use of any footage featuring that material and the disablement of the allegedly infringing material from WWE’s 2K games properties. There is also an order requiring defendants to provide full accounting records which show revenue and profits made from the allegedly infringing material, the destruction of the allegedly infringing material, attorney fees, and a declaration that the defendants’ “use of the Bloodline sequence and related audiovisual configurations” infringes on the plaintiffs’ ownership. In addition to that there is an order corrective advertising in order to dispel any confusion between the two works.
At this point in time court records do not indicate that the defendants have been served.
Stay tuned for updates.