Jeff Jarrett Seeks Nearly $5 Million Against Impact For Destroying GFW Master Tapes, Wants Name Back

WWE Hall Of Famer Jeff Jarrett has for the second time amended his complaint against Impact Wrestling and its parent Company, Anthem, in the United States District Court For The Middle District Of Tennessee At Nashville according to PWInsider. Principally at issue is Anthem's destruction of the Global Force Wrestling Amped! master recordings.

In the legal discovery process, Anthem revealed that it had destroyed the original master tapes of Jarrett's self-produced GFW Amped! series. Anthem officials informed Jarrett in November 2018 that the tapes were "deleted in the normal course of business, long prior to the onset of this litigation, in order to free up storage space on Anthem Wrestling's systems."

Jarrett argues that the destruction of these tapes constitutes a $4.8 million loss insofar as his 16 hours of video, valued at $300,000 per hour-long episode, now cannot receive copyright protection. Counsel for Jarrett wrote, "the last remaining step in the registration process is submission of deposit copies, which [Jarrett] cannot provide to the Copyright Office due to [Anthem and Impact]'s unlawful possession and/or deletion of the only master recordings of the 16 one-hour GFW Amped[!] videos. [Anthem and Impact] admit that the master recordings were deleted while in their custody and no longer exist."

Jarrett & Co. aver that Anthem and Impact have "engaged in unfair, deceptive, or fraudulent conduct, which is likely to cause, if it has not already, customer confusion in violation of Tennessee common law" and also make an equitable claim of unjust enrichment at common law.

Under the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act, Jarrett et al. argue that Anthem and Impact have "violated and, upon information and belief, continue to violate [Jarrett]'s exclusive rights in the GFW Amped content and the 16 associated copyrights, including, but not limited to, the right to reproduce, right to prepare and sell derivative works, and right to vend by copying, publishing, distributing, and publicly displaying in the marketplace in this District, and in all marketplaces reached by the Internet, videos that were copied or otherwise derived from the GFW Amped content."

Also of note in this second amended complaint is Jarrett's claim that Anthem has no intention of working with Jarrett again and "is not currently providing any entertainment services, namely wrestling exhibits and performances by a professional wrestler and entertainer, under [his] name," nor is the company "providing wrestling news and information via a global computer network under [his] name." Similarly, Jarrett's new court filings note that Anthem is not currently using Jarrett's name for action figures or toys "and has no intent to resume such use."

Presumably, the above claim paves the way for WWE to license and use Jarrett's name and likeness going forward. In addition to seeking a ruling that Anthem's trademark on Jarrett's name be returned to him, Jarrett now seeks damages of nearly $5 million.