Impact Wrestling Beaten In Court, Impact Admits To Breaching Agreement
The lawsuit with Audience of One Productions, LLC and Impact Wrestling has now been settled, with AO1 as the winner. Not only was AO1 suing Impact Wrestling, but also Aroluxe, LLC, Ron Harris, and Impact Wrestling CFO Dean Broadhead. AO1 alleged, according to the court document, that "Harris made false assurances to [AO1] that TNA would make payments that it never intended to make," as well as the Harris brothers, representatives of Aroluxe, "[taking] steps to prevent further payment from TNA."
According to PWInsider, Impact Wrestling did indeed admit in court that they breached their agreement, and the contract was "valid and enforceable." Impact also admitted to stopping payment after just the first installment, and failing to pay them the remaining balance of what was owed. The agreement was initially reached for AO1 to be Impact's lead production company, since the Harris brothers were not providing a high-quality presentation despite their experience working backstage in a similar manner.
The belief from AO1 was that their initial production, which happened for the Bound for Glory 2015 pay-per-view, was going to be one of many with the company, as they would also spearhead wrestling events, audio/visual broadcasting work, set construction and breakdown, and lighting. Unfortunately, this ceased, as TNA failed to uphold their end of the bargain financially.
After an invoice in the amount of $223,000 was rendered to Impact Wrestling, CFO Broadhead responded in an email that they are finalizing a new deal to get Impact into over 80 million homes, and "We are planning to go back into Universal Studios in 2016 and get back on the right track with our production. Please, please hang in there with us. We will come out of these difficult times in a much better position as a company and a partner."
Tension continued to rise when the agreement to pay off the amount owed between March 2016 and August 2016 was handled by Impact as them informing AO1 that they were "on track" to get to a zero balance, when actually, their financial troubles began to increase. In addition, according to the lawsuit, "Aroluxe provided some form of financing to TNA which, upon information and belief, was sufficient to allow TNA to continue operating for the foreseeable future. This financing was secured with a lien on all or nearly all of TNA's assets, including, but not limited to, all accounts receivable as well as all fixtures, inventory, and equipment." The agreement to wire the first installment was halted by Broadhead, who stated that they could not wire the money. In essence, they were trying to buy time in order to pay other creditors. Impact Wrestling also ceased communicating with AO1 about the rest of the money owed.
Although the Harris brothers were dismissed from the claim, since they were not directly involved in the situations and providing declarations of proof, Impact Wrestling and Broadhead received the judgment to pay AO1 a total of $223,000 plus interest and post-judgment costs. This case was filed prior to Anthem being the majority owner.
Source: PWInsider
Charles Maynard contributed to this article.