It's probably 2 months too late for TNA to grow a spine but hey better late than ever. I'm more interested in knowing if WWE is interested in poaching anyone besides Flair and Shelley. Hopefully someone more interesting than Morgan.
Originally posted by PWInsiderTNA filed a lawsuit yesterday in court in Nashville against WWE and former TNA and WWE office worker Brian Wittenstein for interference with existing contracts, conversion, breach of contract, civil conspiracy, unfair competition, and violation of the Tennessee Uniform Trade Secrets Act. They are also suing Wittenstein for breach of duty of loyalty.
TNA's lawsuit alleges that that Wittenstein, who worked for TNA for three years before departing in 2011, provided World Wrestling Entertainment with inside information on contracts and other matters from his time working in the live events department and now WWE is attempting to poach talent from the company with that information.
Wittenstein was hired by WWE earlier this year and worked briefly under Michael Hayes as his assistant before being let go by WWE. According to the suit, WWE fired Wittenstein after he presented them with inside TNA information. However, WWE did not inform TNA that they had been provided that information for nearly three weeks.
TNA claims they were informed on 5/7. Several days later, Ric Flair (who the company has been having issues with, as we've reported here) approached TNA trying to get out of his contract. In the lawsuit, TNA alleged that Flair was trying to get out of his contract in order to go to WWE and since telling TNA he wanted out of his deal, has not appeared as booked at live events, including the Sacrifice PPV.
In the last week, there have also been rumors that Alex Shelley had turned down a new TNA contract and was looking to go to WWE as well. While those stories have been making the rounds, PWInsider.com has not been able to independently confirm them. Shelley was not mentioned in the legal filing.
An injunction was issued earlier today demanding that WWE and Wittenstein each return whatever confidential material Wittenstein retained from his time working for TNA. They were specifically instructed not to "destroy" any of the material.
Anyone notice during Smackdown!, when the camera panned down to the photos that Angle had thrown to the ground as he went off to chase after Edge?
If you have it on tape, check out the one that's marked "P.S. I HAVE NO TESTICLES" ...