Former WWE star and licensed attorney David Otunga has provided a detailed legal breakdown of the complex contract situation surrounding Andrade El Idolo, culminating in a wild theory as to why WWE is enforcing an unprecedented non-compete clause. The wrestling world has been buzzing since Andrade, who was released by WWE in mid-September for reported disciplinary issues, returned to AEW on October 1, only to be pulled from television immediately after. Reports emerged that WWE had sent AEW a cease-and-desist, enforcing a one-year, unpaid non-compete clause stemming from Andrade being fired “with cause.” In a new YouTube video, Otunga analyzed the legality of such a clause and proposed that WWE’s move isn’t about winning in court, but about a high-stakes “chess match” to gain leverage on AEW for one of their top stars.
Otunga began by revealing that this clause is not new, as he found an identical one in his own contract from his time with the company.
“So I found my 2017 WWE contract, which will be a whole video in and of itself, if not multiple videos. But for today we’re just focusing on the non-compete clause. So WWE’s non-compete clause, it’s called a covenant not to compete. And it states, ‘During the term worldwide and in the United States for one year after the expiration or termination of this agreement for any reason whatsoever, talent shall not perform or provide any services for or on behalf of any professional wrestling organization or entity, not owned or controlled by WWE, or any affiliated or subsidiary company thereof…’ It goes on, but it basically says that one year after termination, there’s a non-compete clause that’s in effect. Now why we’ve never heard of this or seen this enforced before the Andrade situation, I’m not sure. But it appears that this non-compete has been in these contracts, at least back to 2017.”
He then pointed out a major legal contradiction in the contract’s language regarding talent being independent contractors.
“The important part of this [clause] is that it says — so talent, they’re making talent represent themselves as an independent contractor and not an employee. So that is very clear. But then the very next sentence, it says that ‘talent shall have the sole control of the manner and means of performing his work.’ Now, wouldn’t that mean that the talent could perform his work at another wrestling promotion that’s not WWE? Because I mean, that’s what an independent contractor is, and that’s written into WWE’s contract. However, it is quite vague and that’s the problem with a lot of the clauses and this contract. There’s so much to be left open to interpretation. There’s just a lot of vague clauses in here… The contract is a lot of contradictions, and this is one right here. The whole independent contractor part just, it just doesn’t seem legally enforceable to me, if I’m being honest.”
Otunga argued that the standard paid 90-day non-compete is a smart business move by WWE to avoid legal challenges, but an unpaid one-year non-compete is a different story.
“The fact that you’re preventing somebody from working to support themselves in their given field for an entire year and you’re not compensating them? So that right there, we can go back to Contract Law 101. It has to be equal on both sides, or where you’re giving up something in exchange for something else… In this situation with Andrade, he has been given a one year non-compete that is not compensated. If he were to take this to court, I think a judge is very, very likely going to rule in his favor and just throw out that entire clause of the contract. Because you can’t prevent somebody from earning a living for an entire year.”
This led Otunga to question WWE’s real motive, as he believes they are likely to lose if challenged in court. He speculated that the move is not about Andrade, but about gaining leverage on AEW for something else.
“What’s their game plan? What could they be getting out of this? Which makes me think about strategy. Because WWE? They have a very good business strategy and everything is done for a reason. I wonder what that reason is this time. Is it possibly they’re trying to gain leverage on AEW for something?”
He then revealed his “wild” theory: that WWE is using Andrade as a “pawn” to pressure AEW into allowing Adam “Edge” Copeland to return to WWE for one last match against John Cena on his retirement tour.
“So hear me out. Now this might be wild, it might not be. But what if WW is doing this to Andrade to get to AEW to try to put pressure on them to then allow Edge to come back to WWE to battle John Cena one last time? What if that’s it? Actually, that would be pretty dope because if it is — all right, look, we could let them slide with this contract nonsense for right now, just for that. Eventually they’re gonna have to clean up this contract situation. But if they get us Edge to come back and have one more match with John Cena? Hey, I’m here for it. And Andrade just happens to be a pawn in this chess match.”
Thanks for checking out this article. Make sure to follow Jeff Jarrett and all things GFE on Facebook.
