Tag: oliver luck

Vince McMahon, Oliver Luck settle XFL wrongful termination lawsuit

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Vince McMahon and Oliver Luck aren’t headed to trial after all.

As was first reported by Sports Business Journal on Monday, McMahon and Luck have reached a settlement in Luck’s wrongful termination lawsuit. Luck, who was the commissioner of McMahon’s 2020 XFL revival, was seeking approximately $24 million in compensation in the lawsuit.

Financial terms of the settlement haven’t been disclosed.

“The parties reached an agreement to resolve this case on June 16, 2022,” Luck’s attorney Paul Dobrowski wrote in a filing last Friday. Dobrowski was seeking a judicial order to permanently seal records in the case.

Luck, whose contract as XFL commissioner had been personally guaranteed by McMahon, was fired just days before the XFL folded amid the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. McMahon claimed that he fired Luck due to “gross neglect of his job” during the pandemic, personal use of a league-assisted cellphone, and signing wide receiver Antonio Callaway despite Callaway having had legal issues. When McMahon announced the relaunch of the XFL in 2018, he stated that no players with criminal histories would be welcome in the league.

A judge had thrown out McMahon’s other claims, with the Callaway issue being the only one that would have been considered if the lawsuit went to trial.

McMahon filed a countersuit against Luck in January 2021.

A settlement conference between the two sides had taken place last Wednesday but only lasted nine minutes.

Last Friday, McMahon announced that he’s voluntarily stepping away from his WWE chairman and CEO positions until the WWE Board of Directors’ investigation into alleged misconduct committed by him is completed. The Wall Street Journal published a story last week revealing that McMahon was being investigated by the Board of Directors over a “secret $3 million hush pact” with a former WWE employee who he allegedly had an affair with.

Stephanie McMahon has been named WWE’s interim chairwoman and CEO. Vince McMahon is still running WWE creative during the investigation.

Vince McMahon-Oliver Luck headed for trial after settlement talks last nine minutes

Posted on by Ethan Renner

Alpha Entertainment’s Vince McMahon and former XFL commissioner Oliver Luck’s lawsuits against one another are headed to trial after today’s settlement talks lasted just nine minutes.

Pro Football Talk and The Athletic’s Daniel Kaplan report that mediators met with representatives for both sides on Wednesday in an attempt to reach a settlement agreement, but that talks quickly fizzled. 

Luck is suing McMahon’s company for $23.8 million in compensation from his XFL contract, after McMahon had provided a personal guarantee that Luck would be paid. McMahon countersued Luck, alleging that Alpha incurred damages of over $572,000 as a result of Luck breaching his contract and duties. 

A trial date has been set for July 11.

This iteration of the XFL was announced in January 2018, and kicked off in February 2020. Luck was named commissioner of the league in June 2018. 

After suspending operations in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the XFL fired Luck and all of its employees, then filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections three days later in April 2020. 

A group led by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and business partner Dani Garcia ended up purchasing the XFL in August 2020, and the league is now set for a February 2023 relaunch.

Daily Update: Vince McMahon-Oliver Luck lawsuit, CM Punk, AEW tickets

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

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This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Elimination Chamber review, Undertaker to WWE Hall of Fame

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Monday News Update

Bryan and I will be back tonight for Wrestling Observer Radio talking Raw, the AEW announcements, WrestleMania news as well as taking your emails questions to [email protected].

WWE

  • Raw is tonight from Columbus, OH. Raw today passed 7,000 tickets out which would be the largest Raw crowd of 2022. Damian Priest vs. Finn Balor for the U.S. title is advertised plus Edge appears. Tommaso Ciampa is backstage which makes sense since the idea is now to shoot angles on Monday for Tuesday and they have Ciampa & Bron Breakker vs. Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode as the NXT 2.0 main event.
  • The Vince McMahon-Oliver Luck lawsuit is headed to trial on 7/11 by orders of Judge S. Dave Vatti. WWE has claimed Luck destroyed evidence within an hour of being terminated.
  • As was teased on Smackdown, the official listings for WrestleMania does have Queen Zelina & Carmella defending the women’s tag tiles against Naomi & Sasha Banks.
  • For Saturday’s MSG show, WWE has pulled the advertising of Seth Rollins as the opponent for Roman Reigns. It is just listed as Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns both defending their titles against unnamed opponents. On television, they have pushed the Lesnar title defense hard and not mentioned the Reigns match. The announced matches are Becky Lynch vs. Bianca Belair vs. Rhea Ripley for the Raw women’s title, Charlotte Flair & Sonya Deville vs. Ronda Rousey & Naomi and Usos vs. New Day for the tag titles. Rollins is advertised still on the show, just not against Reigns.
  • Both Rollins and Becky Lynch were not on the weekend house shows even though they had been advertised. No announcement was made nor any reason given.
  • Two episodes of the Corey Graves & Carmella reality show pilot were released today on WWE’s YouTube channel. The promotion heavily publicized this.
  • There will be an Ilja Dragunov vs. Nathan Frazier match on NXT UK on Thursday.

AEW

  • Esquire Magazine did a major piece on C.M. Punk and his return that is worth reading even though most of you know the gist of the public part of the story but there is some private stuff that has never been out.
  • For Revolution, there are 29 tickets left priced at $271 to $900.50 and 429 tickets left on the secondary market at three to four times the usual face value.
  • The 4/6 show in Boston as of this morning was 366 tickets shy of a sellout (thanks to William Zdon/Wrestle Tix).
  • On BTE, the Young Bucks and Matt Hardy did a total spoof of the WWE/Jeff Hardy issues on today’s show.
  • Tay Conti is scheduled for the 3/26 EMW show in Tijuana. 

Other Wrestling

  • Johnny Gargano today said that he wants to remain a free agent at this time so he can pick and choose what he wants to do for the time being.
  • The debut of up-to-date New Japan on AXS will be Thursday at 10 p.m. with Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kazuchika Okada vs. Sanada & Tetsuya Naito and Evil vs. Tomohiro Ishii for the Never open weight title. From 3/10 to 3/31 they will be airing matches from 2/19 and 2/20 in Sapporo with Okada vs. Naito as a full show match on 3/31.
  • A video promoting the upcoming Matt Cardona vs. Nick Aldis NWA world heavyweight title match.
  • Slam Wrestling has an interview with Shane Taylor, formerly of Ring of Honor, where he talks about what is next.
  • Slam Wrestling also has a Q&A with “Dazzler” Ken Dunlop, who was a name wrestler in Australia and who recently released his autobiography, Dazzler Dunlop: Inside my Squared Circle.
  • Defy had its 50th show on Saturday night in Seattle: Titus Alexander b Ethan HD, Cody Chhun & Guillermo Rosas b Midnight Heat & Levi Cooper (Tucker in WWE) in a handicap match where Chhun & Rosas would have to leave Defy if they lost, Bollywood Boyz b Rocky Romero & Kevin Knight to keep Defy tag titles, Christopher Daniels b Clark Connors to keep Defy title, Jonah b Schaff, Sw3rve b Nick Wayne. Shane Strickland is just going by the name Sw3rve (thanks to Matt Farmer).
  • Regarding the question from yesterday as to whether AZM and Starlight Kid were the youngest wrestlers to get a ****1/2 or better rating or a match there was a ***** match in Mexico between Rey Misterio Jr., who was 19, and Juventud Guerrera, who was 20, in December 1994.
  • CWE announced shows for 4/6 in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, 4/7 in Prince Albert, 4/8 in Saskatoon and 4/9 in Regina.
  • Minoru Suzuki vs. Kevin Blackwood was announced for West Coast Pro on 4/15 in South San Francisco, CA at The State Room.

UFC

  • Rafael Fiziev, who was to face Rafael dos Anjos in the No. 2 bout on this coming Saturday’s UFC 272 PPV show, is out after testing positive for COVID. Both Islam Makhachev, who just won on Saturday night, and Paul Felder, have said that they would take the short notice fight against dos Anjos. For Makhachev that’s something because he’s already earned a title shot and has nothing to gain from a win over dos Anjos.
  •  UFC 274 on 5/7 will be from Phoenix.
  • Sportsbetting.ag has placed odds heavily in favor if Islam Makhachev winning the lightweight title. He’s listed as a -415 favorite against Charles Oliveira, and a -600 favorite against Justin Gaethje. 

Vince McMahon countersues ex-XFL commissioner for $573,000

Posted on by Josh Nason

USA Today reported Friday that WWE chairman Vince McMahon has countersued former XFL commissioner Oliver Luck for nearly $600,000.

McMahon filed the suit on Thursday in Connecticut federal court, saying Luck defied McMahon’s orders with his league personnel decisions and that Luck was derelict in his duties when the pandemic hit in March. 

Luck sued McMahon in April for breach of contract after he was fired the day before the XFL announced they were laying off all personnel, a precusor to filing for bankruptcy. He is seeking the remaining $23+ million of his contract in addition to damages and attorney fees. 

The main sticking point for McMahon was Luck’s decisions on specific players that defied McMahon’s edict that they be “quality football players with good character.” One of those players was Antonio Callaway, out of the NFL due to a substance abuse violation and a prior suspension due to credit card fraud.

He was brought into the XFL player pool and taken by Tampa Bay. However, he got injured and never played a game, but was still due his $120,000 signing bonus in addition to worker’s compensation.

The $572,792.10 McMahon is suing for covers Callaway’s contract and worker’s comp in addition to Luck’s compensation from March 14th through April 9th. The dates are when McMahon said Luck went home to Indiana instead of sticking around the league’s offices in Connecticut to manage things through the pandemic, claiming Luck cut off communication.

From the suit: “Luck knowingly and deliberately deceived me – repeatedly – throughout the Callaway situation, which made me question whether I could continue to trust Luck to be the commissioner and CEO of the XFL.”

Another player who caused an issue between the two was controversial quarterback Johnny Manziel who McMahon wasn’t interested in. 

From the USA Today story:

“After learning of reports that the XFL would consider signing Manziel, McMahon texted Luck “How long R U going to play this game Oliver? U know there is NO CHANCE IN HELL for Manziel to play for us. I will not change my mind. So what’s Ur plan??”

Admitting it was a headlines ploy, Luck responded: “Vince – we have no intention of signing him, none whatsoever. We’re just milking the story to stay in the news. I’m happy to categorically rule him out but both Jeffrey and I think it is worthwhile to milk it until the showcases are finished (July 12). At that point we can say he doesn’t fit into our plans.”

An ownership group led by Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia purchased the assets of the XFL with the intent of relaunching it in 2022.

Details emerge on Vince McMahon-Oliver Luck XFL firing drama

Posted on by Josh Nason

This story was updated at 7:45 PM Eastern.

Details emerged Wednesday on why XFL commissioner Oliver Luck was fired by WWE chairman and league founder Vince McMahon four days before it shut down operations, courtesy of the Sports Business Journal.

McMahon fired Luck for “gross neglect” and Luck filed a lawsuit soon thereafter to reclaim some of money lost by his surprise dismissal. It was revealed Wednesday that Luck is looking for $23.8 million from McMahon. That amount is the remainder of a contract that was worth five years and $35 million, personally guaranteed by McMahon through his Alpha Entertainment parent LLC, ensuring Luck could sue McMahon rather than go through U.S. bankruptcy court as a creditor.

In pre-trial filings, McMahon’s legal team listed “gross neglect of his job during the COVID-19 pandemic”, “personal use of a league-assisted cellphone”, and the signing of a former NFL receiver with previous legal issues despite McMahon’s previous orders to avoid doing so.

Also in the filings, McMahon claimed that Luck left the XFL’s Connecticut headquarters for his home in Indiana and “disengaged” from the league’s operations.

The suit read, “Put simply, at the very moment when his leadership as CEO was needed most, Luck did not devote substantially all of his business time to the XFL, as required by his contract.”

In a response through his lawyer, Luck said he communicated with McMahon via text during that aforementioned period of time which he said was McMahon’s preferred method; that the reciever (Antonio Callaway) was hired with McMahon’s knowledge and edict to upgrade the reciever quality and was released when McMahon instructed Luck to do so; and none of the offenses he claims ver elicited a formal complaint from McMahon to Luck.

Vince McMahon sued by former XFL commish for wrongful termination

Posted on by Josh Nason

Image: SI

The fallout from Vince McMahon’s sudden shuttering of the XFL started with the league filing for bankruptcy last week and continued Tuesday with news that the league’s now-former commissioner is suing the WWE chairman.

According to The Athletic, lawyers for Oliver Luck filed a lawsuit against McMahon last week in Connecticut for unspecified damages due to a breach of their contract.

While the six page suit was heavily redacted, they surmised that a line that reads “Mr. Luck wholly disputes and rejects the allegations set forth in the Termination Letter and contends they are pretextual and devoid of merit” suggests Luck was fired for cause.

The Athletic also noted the suit says that McMahon’s Alpha Entertainment filed to have the bankruptcy court reject “Certain Executive Contracts”. That is assumed to mean Luck, and perhaps other executives, would be due none of their contracted salary. Luck was reportedly due $20 million over the life of his contract.

The 60-year-old is a former NFL quarterback who also was the first president and general manager of Houston’s MLS team as well as an NCAA executive. He was hired by McMahon in 2018 to head up the XFL revival, but was relieved of his duties on April 9th, the day before the league laid off all employees and players.

Oliver Luck named as XFL commissioner and CEO

Posted on by Joseph Currier

When announcing the revival of the XFL, Vince McMahon promised that “experienced executives” would be hired to be at the forefront of the league.

The league followed up on that today, with Oliver Luck being named as the commissioner and chief executive officer of the XFL. Luck, who is the father of Indianapolis Colts star Andrew Luck, played quarterback at West Virginia University and had a stint as a backup in the NFL in the 1980s.

Luck is leaving a position as the executive vice president of regulatory affairs for the NCAA. Prior to that, Luck served as the athletic director at West Virginia University, was the president of NFL Europe and the Houston Dynamo soccer team. and was the CEO of the Houston Sports Authority.

“Oliver and I share the same vision and passion for reimagining the game of football. His experience as both an athlete and executive will ensure the long-term success of the XFL,” McMahon said in a statement.

In an interview with Bleacher Report’s Mike Freeman, Luck said that the XFL respects individual freedoms but will require players to stand for the national anthem.

The relaunched XFL is planning on starting in 2020 but will face competition from Charlie Ebersol’s Alliance of American Football, which will be debuting on CBS Sports in 2019.