Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com recently posted an update on the lawsuit that Jody Hamilton (The Assassin) filed against World Wrestling Entertainment.
Jody was contracted by WWE to set up a development promotion in Georgia which ended up being called Deep South Wrestling, a promotion name Jody had used in the 1980s in Georgia.
The Lawsuit states that Jody Hamilton was paid an annual salary of $80,000 + another $80,000 to run Deep South Wrestling to develop/train WWE’s contracted talent and to produce a TV show, get it aired in Georgia, or wherever Deep South Wrestling ran house shows. These are the same numbers I was told at the time of my involvement.
I was hired by WWE as a consultant to produce the TV show for Deep South, and to evaluate talent. WWE would own the TV show, not Deep South. I asked to be released from my contract with WWE, after several months, as things were not working out as I had expected. WWE let me out of my contract.
Jody contends in the lawsuit that he was fully compliant with his WWE contract, but that WWE was not. He claims he was not provided with 90 days notice when WWE severed ties with Deep South Wrestling, which Mr. Hamilton says was required under the contract. Hamilton says he had set up 6 events for 2007 with Six Flags Over Georgia. The previous year Deep South had promoted events at the theme park. The shows were bought by Six Flags, similar to the deal OVW had with Six Flags in their area. Hamilton claims that WWE had promised talent for these 2007 shows.
The lawsuit refers to the WWE contracted talent that were assigned by WWE to Deep South as "shared talent", and the relationship with WWE as to their contracted talent as being a "talent exchange program" between WWE & Deep South. To the best of my knowledge no talent assigned to Deep South by WWE was also contracted to Deep South, and all contracted talent was paid by WWE, and assigned by WWE to Deep South or to OVW, as talent moved back & forth between the two promotions.
Hamilton is requesting $320,000 in DSW damages, and $52,000 in personal damages, and Hamilton is also claiming "emotional distress".
