Lawsuit Filed Against WWE For Patent Infringement

SITO Mobile, Ltd has filed a lawsuit against WWE alleging infringement of patents.

Heel By Nature is reporting that the lawsuit was filed on May 21, 2021 in the United States Court for the District of Delaware. Below is an excerpt from the complaint that includes 12 patents that SITO Mobile is claiming WWE has infringed:

SITO respectfully requests this Court to enter judgment in SITO’s favor and against WWE as follows:

a. finding that WWE directly infringes, literally and/or under the doctrine of equivalents, one or more claims of each of the patents-in-suit;

b. awarding SITO damages under 35 U.S.C. § 284, or otherwise permitted by law, including supplemental damages for any continued post-verdict infringement;

c. awarding SITO pre-judgment and post-judgment interest on the damages award and costs;

d. awarding costs of this action (including all disbursements) and attorney fees pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 285, or as otherwise permitted by the law; and

e. awarding such other costs and further relief that the Court determines to be just and equitable.

Click here to read more.

This Day In Wrestling History

WWE Announces Return To Touring With 25-City Schedule

WWE is returning to the road with fans in attendance.

It was announced this morning that a 25-city tour will begin on Friday, July 16 with a live SmackDown at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. The Money In the Bank pay-per-view will then take place that Sunday, July 18 at the Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, TX, and a live RAW will be held on July 19 from the American Airlines Center in Dallas, TX.

Tickets for all three of those shows will go on sale this Wednesday, May 26 at 11am ET.

WWE will be announcing the rest of the tour stops and on-sale dates in the coming weeks. It was noted that the 25-city schedule will run through Labor Day, which is Monday, September 6.

These dates will be WWE’s first regular ticketed events since March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. WrestleMania 37 was held this past April with fans in the crowd.

AEW Dynamite Viewership And Key Demo Rating Down From Last Week’s Show

Wednesday’s live edition of AEW Dynamite drew 821,000 viewers on TNT, according to Nielsen via Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer.

This AEW viewership is down 12.3% from last week’s show, which drew 936,000 viewers.

This week’s Dynamite drew a 0.28 rating in the 18-49 key demographic. This is down 9.7% from last week’s 0.31 rating in the key demo.

WWE NXT Viewership Up From Last Week With Steel Cage Main Event

Tuesday’s live edition of WWE NXT, featuring Bronson Reed defeating Johnny Gargano to win the NXT North American Title in the Steel Cage main event, drew 700,000 viewers on the USA Network, according to Nielsen via @SportsTVRatings.

This viewership is up 0.43% from last week’s show, which drew 697,000 viewers.

WWE Releases Velveteen Dream

WWE NXT star Velveteen Dream was released today by the company, according to multiple sources.  The release happened within the last hour we are told.

Dream, real name Patrick Clark, 25, was signed to the company after being eliminated fromthe 2015  Tough Enough season where he obviously showed the most passion for pro wrestling out of any of the contestants but was still voted off the show.  After a big push from WWE Hall of Famer Lita at the time, WWE hired Clark for the developmental system, sending him to WWE NXT later that year.

Clark eventually debuted as The Velveteen Dream in 2017, a character obviously inspired in part by the late, great musician Prince and went to great lengths to remain in character as much as possible when in the public eye.  He quickly rose to prominence in NXT with a tremendous series of performances, looking every bit like a future Wrestlemania main event player.  His work in the ring, nor his flair for performing, was never in question.

That momentum sputtered, stalled and died after online allegations of Clark allegedly sending indecent images to underage boys through social media, a story that lit up after a Reddit user began posting screenshots and audio.  WWE management stated that they looked into the allegations but found no cause for action, leading to Paul Levesque being asked about the situation numerous times during media calls and anti-Velveteen Dream trends on social media whenever he did appear on television.

Clark last wrestled for WWE NXT in December 2020 and had not been seen at the WWE Performance Center for some time.  He was present several weeks back at a Raw taping, but at the time, PWInsider.com was told there were no plans to use him on the main roster.

WWE has not publicly announced Clark's release.  PWInsider.com confirmed his departure with a number of sources this afternoon, however.

source: pwinsider.com

Several WWE NXT Releases

Several WWE NXT departures have been made today, according to PWInsider:

Former MMA Horsewomen member Jessamyn Duke is gone from the company. After a MMA career with the UFC and Invicta, Duke signed with WWE in 2018. She appeared on RAW Underground last year, picking up a win over Avery Taylor. She has not been in action since then.

Vanessa Borne (Danielle Kamela) has also been released. She trained under WWE Hall of Famer Rikishi in 2016, and signed with WWE in April 2016. Borne was reportedly called to the main roster in January 2020 after re-signing with WWE, but never made her official debut. She worked as a NBA dancer, NFL cheerleader and FOX Sports presenter before signing with WWE. 

Skyler Story (Brandi Lauren Pawalek) is also no longer with NXT. She was formerly known as Ava Storie and Brandi Lauren on the indies, and also spent about a year with Impact Wrestling from 2017-2018. 

Ezra Judge (Ezekwesiri “EJ” Nduka Jr.) was also released. He was signed in August 2019 after multiple WWE tryouts. Judge previously played arena football and was a pro bodybuilder for the IFBB. 

Fightful Select reports that Alexander Wolfe (Axel Tischer) has also been released. He just wrestled on last night’s NXT TV episode, losing to Killian Dain. 

Kavita Devi (Kavita Dalal) was also cut today, per Fightful. The former TV presenter and powerlifter signed with WWE in October 2017, becoming the first female pro wrestler of Indian nationality to wrestle for the company. 

It was noted that those being released today are told that their departures are due to budget cuts.

NXT referees Drake Wuertz and Jake Clemons were also released.

Triple H Remembers Wrestling First WWE Match While Under WCW Non-Compete

In a post on Twitter, Triple H spoke about first wrestling for the WWF in 1995, while he was still under a non-compete clause following his release from WCW.

He wrote: “Was signed w/ WWE but still on a non compete from WCW. Called JJ Dillion & begged him & Vince to let me work this card & flew myself in. Brought my dad, 1st time he ever saw me wrestle for a big promotion live & at Boston Garden where he watched as a kid. Night I’ll never forget!”

WWE Closes Down Talent Management Group

Last year, WWE began looking to fill positions for a Talent Brand Management department that would help develop WWE Superstars’ brands both in and outside of WWE. This included third party bookings for film, TV, sponsorships, among other things.

The group was short lived as WWE has already shut it down, according to PWInsider.

Below was a description from WWE of what the department would bring to the table.

“WWE Talent Management Group will deliver best-in-class 360-degree support of Talent across all internal lines of business and key external partners, amplifying Talent brand value and maximizing monetization opportunities for Talent and WWE.”

The report noted the decision to end the group was made a few weeks back and the it only existed for four to five weeks.

The division’s creation likely stemmed from WWE looking to tighten up its hold on talent working individually with third parties, like Cameo or Twitch (or even mentioning them on social media).

For several months now, WWE has not allowed talent to create unauthorized content through third party providers. Going on the guise that the contractual ownership of the likeness of their performers includes all social media accounts, regardless of whether the accounts use the stage names or the real names of the talent.

ECW Original New Jack Passes Away

ECW Original New Jack (Jerome Young) has reportedly passed away at the age of 58.

New Jack passed away this afternoon after suffering a heart attack in North Carolina. His wife Jennifer informed PWInsider of the passing. The passing was also confirmed by Jack’s official Facebook page.

Jack is most known for his run in the original ECW, but he also had notable stints with SMW, XPW and various indie promotions. He also multiple made appearances for TNA. He was a three-time ECW World Tag Team Champion. The hardcore star has been retired for a few years now.

Steve Austin Comments On Working With Triple H, Reflects On The Two-Man Power Trip

Steve Austin appeared on Drew McIntyre’s “Drew & A” interview series which aired on Peacock and the WWE Network this week. During the episode, he shared his thoughts on Triple H.

“I love working with Triple H,” Austin said. “We hit it off when he came down to WCW way back in the day. We didn’t travel roads together but we were on the same page. We both loved bodybuilding, powerlifting. He’s a great worker, good mind for the business.”

“But Triple H, a great mind for the game,” Austin continued. “I picked his opinion on many different things, and asked his opinion on many different things when I was on my run, and one of my ideas as a heel that I wanted to do was form a tag team with him, and call it The Two-Man Power Trip. We were really, really trying to get some heat, laying some heavy steel chairs down on The Undertaker, Kane, Hardys, Lita, my God.

“We were doing everything we could in my alliance with him, which kind of ensured that I was headed in a heat direction, and then fate hit one night in a tag match on Monday Night RAW, and he blew out that quad, and that was the end of that, And he made a successful comeback, obviously he’s had one of the greatest runs in the history of the business, but a guy that’s a lot of fun to be in the ring with.”

AEW Dynamite Viewership Fell Back Below 1 Million Viewers This Week

AEW viewership dropped this week following last week's highly anticipated Blood & Guts match.

The two-hour broadcast on TNT this week pulled in 936,000 viewers, which is down from 1.090 million last week, according to PWTorch.

The episode scored a 0.66 cable rating, which is also down from 0.72 last week, and delivered a 0.38 demographic rating in the 18-49 category, down from 0.42 the week previous.