On July 20 WWE filed a Motion To Dismiss the lawsuit that was filed in April 2009 by Jody “The Assassin” Hamilton & DSW (Deep South Wrestling), former WWE development promotion in McDonough, GA.
The motion stated that plaintiffs had “failed to state a claim upon which relief may be granted”.
WWE contends in the filing that Hamilton & DSW filed in “a misguided attempt to lash out against WWE over WWE’s decision to terminate the partner’s business relationship”.
WWE called the allegations in the lawsuit “factually deficient”.
WWE says the lawsuit claim of breach of contract fails to note “allegations as to any contractural obligation the WWE supposedly breached”.
Hamilton claimed “severe emotional distress” in his filing. WWE responded that plantiff had failed to file within two years as required by law. WWE added that regardless that part of the filing “must be dismissed as a matter of law becauseeven accepting all factual allegations are true for the purpose of the moption to dismiss, WWE’s actions do not rise to the level of extreme and outrageous conduct necessary.”
Hamilton suit refered to the wrestling talent in DSW as “shared personal”, and the WWE “interferred”, which I found odd when I first read the lawsuit as the wrestlers assigned by WWE to DSW were always under contract to WWE not DSW, and wwere assigned to DSW by WWE. There were Indy wrestlers and others who were not under contract to DSW that wrestled at TV tapings or helped out at DSW, but any decision not to continue to use those folk was Hamilton’s, not WWE’s, and that would have been true even after WWE removed it’s financial support from DSW. Hamilton & DSW could have continued to operate. The only difference would have been that Hamilton would have needed to go out of pocket personally to do so. The decision to shut down DSW was Hamilton’s. In fact Hamilton ended up restarting DSW months after shutting down operations and leaving the building in McDonough, promoting several spot shows in Locust Grove, GA, drawing 100 or less on July 5, July 26 & October 11 brand using the DSW brand and local talent, some that had been under WWE contract but had been released. The DSW Champion was current TNA star Austin “Consequences” Creed, who was a regulat at NWA Anarchy at the time.
WWE’s filing noted that the talent assigned to DSW while WWE was involved were never under contract to DSW rather WWE.
Atlanta based attorney John Taylor, who was thanked by Ric Flair in his Hall Of Fame speech, filed the responce for theWWE.
