Kevin Kelly & The Tate Twins File Lawsuit Against AEW, Kelly Also Suing Ian Riccaboni Over Defamation Claims [Update: AEW Responds]

Update:

In an official statement to Sports Illustrated, a representative from AEW’s Public Relations department responded to Kevin Kelly and The Tate Twins’ defamation lawsuit against them, AEW CEO Tony Khan, and AEW/ROH commentator Ian Riccaboni.

“AEW does not comment on pending litigation.”

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As noted before, Kevin Kelly was fired from AEW this past March over issues related to an online incident involving Kelly accusing AEW and ROH commentator Ian Riccaboni of committing libel against him. Besides the online incident, AEW officials had also not been happy with Kelly’s quality of work as a commentator for the company. The

The Boys’ Brendon & Brent Tate were released by AEW this past April over issues related to them no showing their scheduled bookings, which The Boys denied being true.

The Wrestling News reported that Kelly, real name Kevin Foote, and the Tate Twins filed a lawsuit against AEW on August 30th before the Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas. It was reported that Kelly and the Tates are seeking to void the arbitration clause of their talent contracts and are requesting for the court to certify a class-action lawsuit against AEW over claims the company is misclassifying their wrestlers as independent contractors rather than as employees.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that the Tate Twins are claiming they were defamed by AEW and ROH owner Tony Khan over his claims that their releases was due to them no showing events, which they still deny. In the filing, the Tates claim that they are owed money, including royalties and travel reimbursements, and “suffered damages in unspecified amounts for the unpaid compensation and suffered indirect damages in an amount to be determined at trial.”

In the lawsuit, the Tates also claimed that they have not had one wrestling booking since departing from ROH despite their attempts to work and that “the statement that Plaintiffs Tates were ‘no-shows,’ which implied that they are unreliable in their profession, subjects each of them to ridicule, embarrassment, humiliation, and s detrimental to each of their personal and professional relationships. The Tates also claim that Khan “had absolutely no evidence to support that Plaintiffs Tats intentionally did not show up for events as opposed to a having a legitimate reason for their nonappearance.”

In regards to Kelly, ROH Ian Riccaboni is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit over claims of defamation being committed by him against Kelly. Kelly is also claiming that AEW breached the terms of his contract by not paying him money owed, both in royalties and reimbursement of travel expenses.

In regards to Kelly’s claims of defamation against AEW and Riccaboni, the lawsuit stated that Kelly “used social media to recommend that people view the movies “Sound of Freedom™” on 7/12/03.  This led to Riccaboni allegedly stating on a Discord social media platform on 8/13, about Foote, “Also, had no idea he was going to promote QAnon movies or else I might have made a different suggestion. I suppose that his name was always in the mix but that QAnon stuff breaks my heart a little bit.” Kelly is claiming that he “attempted to contact Defendant Riccaboni in an attempt to resolve the false statement published by Defendant Riccaboni regarding Plaintiff Foote’s implied association with QAnon and received no response.” Kelly is also claiming that association between the movie and QAnon is “unproven and false” nor any implication that he is a member of QAnon is also “unproven and false.”

Kelly is claiming that Riccaboni published the statements on Discord with “knowledge of in reckless disregard for their falsity”, had “absolutely no evidence to support a relationship between Plaintiff Foot and QAnon and no evidence to support a relationship between the movies and QAnon.” Kelly also stated that the “Statements are highly offensive to a reasonable person as it has been report (sic) that QAnon has been defined as a domestic terrorist and/or is otherwise regarding (sic) as a cult, conspiracy theorists, and antagonistic to the enforcement of laws.”

Kelly also claimed that he had made a complaint to AEW about Riccaboni’s post pointing out AEW’s social media policy but that after the complaint, “AEW began taking adverse actions” towards Foote’s announcing duties. Kelly is also claiming that AEW had told him that Riccaboni had been disciplined but did not disclose what the discipline was nor was he ever told the outcome of the complaint.

Kelly alleges that “the stress from Defendant Riccaboni’s unwarranted comment and AEW’s lack of response adversely affected Plaintiff’s Foote’s mental health and his marital status.” Kelly also alleges that he had informed AEW of the “stress and mental health consequences” he was experiencing due to Riccaboni’s comment and lack of response from AEW. In the lawsuit, Kelly stated that he called and left a message for AEW’s human resources department regarding his treatment by the company following him not being booked for Sting’s retirement event this pact March and was terminated in April.

In an official statement to The Wrestling News, Kelly and the Tates’ attorney Stephen P. New stated “I applaud the bravery of these Plaintiffs in bringing this long-overdue action, challenging the mis-classification of pro-wrestlers as independent contractors instead of employees. We know we are in for a long, hard fight, but in the end, I believe justice always prevails.“

New also commented on Twitter about the lawsuit stating “How fitting and appropriate that on Labor Day weekend a lawsuit is filed seeking to correct, among other things, the abhorrent practice of misclassification of pro wrestlers as independent contractors and not employees. All AEW wrestlers are now members of this putative class.“

In response to a question on Twitter about why they went after AEW instead of also WWE over this issue, New responded stating “Soon as we have plaintiffs who want to sue WWE for misclassification we will. Hopefully this litigation inspires someone to step up.”