Hardcore Justice, a PPV away from a lawsuit

[NatureBoyFig4]

I dunno. Mentioning one of their current employees, Joey Styles, by name was probably not a wise move. They didn't say anything bad about him, but still...

But, I digress. The fans said it best: "F**k you, Vince!"

 

[Joey B.]

They never used an ECW logo in the buildup to this or during the PPV itself, they changed the names of some of the wrestlers to avoid copyright infringement, and they showed no old ECW footage. Simply saying the letters ECW won't get them sued, nor will Tazz's calling the wrestlers by their ECW names once.. Hell, TNA did an angle with Kip James and BG James calling themselves the Voodoo Kin Mafia (VKM), and they were filmed in the vicinity of Titan Towers, with the WWE logo clearly seen. The didn't get sued over that, so why in the hell would anybody think they'd get sued over this PPV?

 

[EffinSaySo]

Do you think Vince cares about the ECW fans, this is the man that took ECW and turned it into a joke and treated it's fans like crap.

ECW was more respectful in my opinion under the WWE umbrella than it was during it's Heydays. For one, you never seen anyone on a WWECW roster disrespect tradition the way the original ECW did to the NWA World Heavyweight Title. They turned that belt into a JOKE...where is it now? I bet the NWA World Heavyweight Title is touring the same locales that ECW could fill up. But i bet whoever showcasing the NWA World Heavyweight title belt is doing a fine job... it hasn't gone under like Paul heyman.

But ya know, karma caught up with them in 2001. It was a JOKE promotion. They got guys who didn't receive (pay)checks but I'm assuming they preferred paper IOUs (pay you later or con man once said c-ya later).

When their own World Champion walk out of them (Mike Awesome) to WCW, he did the smartest thing <besides smashing someone with a lightbulb> (which is why RVD is a perfect employee for Heyman; he was too high to care about whether he was getting paid; too bad he never gotten the ECW World title for his effort)...but ECW talking heads (Joey Styles One Night Stand 2005 comments on him) called him names like school yard bullies in a playground. And guess where Joey Styles, the voice of ECW is...oh yeah, getting paid in WWE (sellout). Did Heyman do the same thing once ECW was buried into debt...you betcha. He worked for the very person ECW wasn't about from 1993-2001.

The only thing positive of ECW was its fans. Actually if you were a businessman, never mind. Why care about them if they aren't paying your bills...putting food in your mouths. These fans were suppose to be die hards or something but the freaking financial officer is telling me we are losing money; we aren't making enough; I'm promising these guys money so they won't jump ship to WWF or WCW. God oh why. Let me call Vince McMahon, maybe he'll help me out. Oh wait, he's going to turn this company into a joke (another word for afloat)...but he'll give us some money...money.....Money....MONEY. Oh well, he can make money of all my hard work...but i'm getting paid. And whatever he does with it, good riddance. But i'll make sure to cry about it later on saying I wouldn't have done those things (ECW on Sci Fi post 2007)...look at what i done before....it worked. It was my creation...even if i couldn't make money to keep it afloat...i kept the fans who stuck with me happy... the wrestlers happy, who cares about paychecks coming in...it was about those fans..those hypocrites. I meant E C DUB E C DUB E C DUB E C DUB.

 

[BFan81]

I did not want to post anything on this PPV. But here goes anyway. I did not order this ECW reunion show. I wanted to...but I had a feeling that it might just be just as terrible as any regular PPV booked by TNA. After reading the results on the news feed, I feel I was right. A lot of nostaglia played out, which is all well and good. But it was never that much in one show in the original EC-dub. This PPV was all about the ECW guys getting together and doing their thing, one last time. Not one TNA superstar was present. Just to throw in their thoughts on a "I remember" segments. Now you wonder why guys like AJ Styles and Samoa Joe are a little annoyed with the company they work for. All the TNA storylines were put on hold, all the guys that do so much work and are trying to make the company better were not given a chance to showcase themselves on a PPV. Really? What is TNA going to do now? I am going to watch iMPACT on Thursday night, with PPV quality matches, for free, from TNA guys. If you haven't listened to the Dave Lagana interview about this PPV, go to the videos section and do so. I highly recommend it. As far as Vince suing, he could, but I don't think he will.

 

[Disturbed]

Vince doesnt even care about tna right now.so no he will not sue tna because he doesn't care about them and he wont waste his time in a lawsuit

 

[XXI Raven XXI]

TNA didnt have to do an "ECW" themed PPV, but they did, so TNA deserve everything they get, its just about Business, Knowing Vince He Will Sue Them, Specially coz at the end they were chanting "fuck you vince" unless i heard wrong, which is possible.

 

[thesubverse]

Every single fan who chanted "Fuck you Vince" has not only lined his pockets in the past, but will again in the future. This counter culture ******ation died years ago and people need to grow up and let go of the past. If you want TNA to compete, why in the world would you ever support something like this event? It was as counterproductive as anything I can imagine short of another Hogan/Warrior match.

 

[FozzyRocks2009]

WHY IN THEE FUCK WOULD VINCE SUE TNA OVER USING ECW STUFF!! First ECW is lame i.e. why it don't exist anymore I mean Vince didn't like it when he owned it look what he did to it.
Second, if he sued TNA after all was said and done he'd get the company which is like worth what 10 bucks. FUCK TNA

 

[dogmanx23]

Vince will probably sue and TNA will fight it and make it as public as possible. TNA isn't owned by a small time guy. He's also a billionaire so they have the resources to fight this.

If Vince is smart he lets it be. Its 1 show and TNA is now going back to their normal programming. TNA showed they did everything not to use any WWE owned names. A few slips won't win them anything.

 

[WarrenIronman]

Every single fan who chanted "Fuck you Vince" has not only lined his pockets in the past, but will again in the future. This counter culture ******ation died years ago and people need to grow up and let go of the past. If you want TNA to compete, why in the world would you ever support something like this event? It was as counterproductive as anything I can imagine short of another Hogan/Warrior match.

I can say most if not all fans that chanted Fuck you vince will not give him more money. Can't you tell they can't stand him or the WWE. The WWE is shit and will contuine to be like that until Vince wakes up. Seems to me kids love blood and hardcore stuff, hell there were a few kids at the PPV today.

I don't know why Vince would sue. He won't get much and this will only do good for TNA. If the WWE were to sue TNA, that is nothing but publicty for TNA. Why would Vince want that?

 

[cbreezy]

[P]They want the WWE to acknowledge them, sure it will cause a major exposure for the company. It's the big thing they have been waiting for. They can survive the lawsuit, and hopefully get some blood boiling in the wrestling world.[/P]

thats it exactly. taz and tenay had people in their ears telling them what to say. its not like the comments were just slipping out. the truth is vince doesnt care what tna does. he doesnt even awknowledge them. although from a business stand point it would be smart to sue if the ppv did well money wise. i say if it was their highest sellinf ppv to date, then hell ya sue the shit out of them. they might not win, but it would be worth a try. i doubt he will though, because then tna will feel like they got vinces attention

 

[Mr-excitement]

First off they can MENTION ECW. There is no law that says that one company cannot mention another. just because Vince owns this trademark it does not mean that someone else cannot talk about it.

As long as they dont MISREPRESENT ECW they are okay.

The only lawsuit Vince could even POSSIBLY have is if he can prove this PPV was somehow misrepresented as an ECW PPV, and honestly I dont think he can prove that these men can get together and work anywhere they want. Anyone who heard the ECW remarks tonight had already paid for the show.

Why sue TNA? In the long run they will lose money on this PPV. EVEN if they somehow draw a great buyrate, many of the ECW fans will walk away as soon as TNA gets back to PPVs featuring its regular players.

In other words, this did nothing to build this company and was a stupid move. What's next an AWA reunion show, I hear Greg Gagne really hates the way the AWA ended.

 

[smarktown]

Wow. Just got back from the best wrestling event I've ever attended and I find this board full of dumbasses saying ECW was never any good, WWE should sue TNA, and the PPV was a lame and horrible idea.

The IWC is a joke. Nothing but a bunch of people who spend 100% of the time pissed off... even if they don't know what they're pissed off about. This was the best wrestling event I've attended in over 25 years of attending shows from indy to PPV. Go back to your holes.

 

[cmillsa1]

The thing is, is that Vince is a buisness man. Im sure he realizes that if he sues TNA, everyone will hear about it. The national news would cover it, possibly even sports channels, Yeah they do that now. And alls that would do is show that TNA has balls, and introduce that brand to a whole new group. Because now they have a bunch of old foggie wrestlers and people wanna see nostolgia.

 

[The Shockmaster]

this thread is so dumb...every time there is a nipple slip from a diva or a superstar gets his head busted open do you see the censorship activists suing the wwe cause they have a pg rating that frowns upon that stuff.

TNA changed all the names of these ECW guys that had name issues with wwe. They didnt use any footage of old ECW guys. Vince cant sue them for a slip of the term ECW here and a balls mohoney there. They used no references to ECW in there buildup to the pay per view so in reality they made no money basing it off of wwe trademarks. If they already bought the pay per view mentioning ECW during the program isnt swaying its buy rate.

Plus suing them would only give them tons of main stream attention which is something that if hes smart which i know Vince is wouldnt give them the benefit of having.

 

[WarrenIronman]

First off they can MENTION ECW. There is no law that says that one company cannot mention another. just because Vince owns this trademark it does not mean that someone else cannot talk about it.

As long as they dont MISREPRESENT ECW they are okay.

The only lawsuit Vince could even POSSIBLY have is if he can prove this PPV was somehow misrepresented as an ECW PPV, and honestly I dont think he can prove that these men can get together and work anywhere they want. Anyone who heard the ECW remarks tonight had already paid for the show.

Why sue TNA? In the long run they will lose money on this PPV. EVEN if they somehow draw a great buyrate, many of the ECW fans will walk away as soon as TNA gets back to PPVs featuring its regular players.

In other words, this did nothing to build this company and was a stupid move. What's next an AWA reunion show, I hear Greg Gagne really hates the way the AWA ended.

I don't know how this is a stupid idea. This could bring in the hardcore ECW fans, who hate vince now. This could pull up the ratings a bit. Seems to me ECW fans now know about another company. Who's to say that just watched for ECW and not TNA. They watched impact and didn't turn it off when TNA superstars were on. I think this could bring up TNA ratings, and TNA could get bigger from this.

 

[wushady]

I wouldn't be surprised if Vince's lawyers send TNA a cease and desist letter trying to prevent them from releasing it on DVD. Whether they can prevent them or not I have no idea. I'm no legal expert, but I would think TNA shouldn't be able to profit off it since WWE owns the rights.

There's nothing wrong with mentioning the letters ECW or WWE. Like Miller mentions Bud or Burger King mentions McDonalds in commercials. They may have changed some of the wrestlers names, but they were clearly trying to profit on WWE's intellectual property.

They were able to prevent Hall and Nash in WCW back in '96 from using their WWE created personas even though they weren't using their WWE ring names. I honestly don't think they should sue at all. TNA is not a threat to WWE at this time, and I don't think that PPV will help them that much.

 

[gers09]

this is taken from prowrestling.net

WWE attorney Jerry McDevitt responded to Alfonso Castillo's question on whether the company intends to pursue legal action against TNA over the Hardcore Justice pay-per-view. "The WWE is the sole owner of the ECW marks, and as with all of WWE's intellectual property it will be vigorously protected," McDevitt said. "TNA acts at its peril if its infringes upon WWE's rights."

here is the link http://www.prowrestling.net/artman/publish/WWE/article10013385.shtml

so sounds to me if tna has done anything that can be understood as breaking there rights then wwe will sue and quite right too

 

[JJ15776]

Ok, first of all, where the hell did people get the idea that it's illegal to say a name? TNA can say ECW all they want. This guy worked in ECW, that guy was a champion in ECW, all of these guys were ECW Originals...there's nothing, legally, to stop them from making references like this all night long. Same with the wresters' names. There's nothing stopping them from saying Blue Twilley (or whatever they're calling him) used to be Blue Meanie in ECW, or Brother Ray was Bubba Ray in ECW and WWE (yes, they can say WWE too).

It's only illegal if they try to MAKE MONEY off the names. If they billed it as "Hardcore Justice: One Night Stand, an ECW Ruenion" - that would be highly illegal. If they advertised Blue Meanie as showing up, that would be illegal. It would be illegal if they implied, or left it unclear, whether or not any of these guys currently work for ECW (or WWE) - that's what got WCW into trouble with Hall and Nash. It wasn't the use of their names, or the way they acted, it was the fact that WCW gave the impression that they might still work for WWE and be coming in as invaders. That's why, on an episode of Nitro, they were explicitly asked if they worked for WWF and directly said no.

Did TNA do any of these? Admittedly, I haven't watched much Impact lately nor did I watch the PPV, so I can't answer that. But I'm assuming they didn't.

 

[Zeven_Zion]

Hey Dumbass commenting on this thread(and Possibly others) makes YOU part of the IWC to *Gasp* I know surprizing to find out huh?

I don't know if it's 'surprizing' or not, but we are dumbasses...

And if that thing in that source that was provided a few posts up is true - HELL YEAH. I think TNA went into this thing with the intention of getting sued. They'll lose money, but they're deffinitely not going to look bad. If anything, they'll look good. Here they are giving a treat to the ECW fans, entertaining them with middle-aged and senile wrestlers and making the crowd go nuts, and 'ol grumpy Vinnie Mac goes bananas on them for nothing. Go WWE attorneys!

 

[paperbagman]

here's my big question...
what gets more Pay-Per-View sales? this or "December to Dismember"? b/c thats the only way it makes economical sense for vince to sue. obviously this is vince mcmahon, but there is also this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WX9lhKNDBo
and i don't think Vince sued over this... even though it was just TNA jumping in on D/X's jokes on Vinnie Mac. And what about VKM? they came out as Michael Hickenbottom and Paul Levesque one week... no suing over that... if it was a legitimately competitive company he may sue, but TNA is not very close to WWE right now.

 

[Savion83]

Look, TNA just CROSSED the line!

If I were Vince McMahon I'd sue. Not because I felt that TNA was a treat or anything. But the WWE has ownership to the ECW name, not TNA. Right is right and wrong is wrong, and TNA were in the wrong. I would hope that Vince McMahon doesn't put his ego on top of the fact that TNA just coomented a very huge crime damn near.

Tonight wasn't an ECW PPV, it was under the TNA copyright name. So Dixie Carter shouldn't take any credit if this PPV was a good buyrate. This was all ECW!

 

[yur_momma]

you fucking "smart" little marks think you know everything about wrestling lol now you think you know the goddamn law?

give me a break.

they can say ECW all night long, every other sentence if they want to. its not illegal or prosecutable or infringement in any way. they can also say NFL, Dancing with the Stars, Star Trek, TMZ, Tosh.0 or anything else they want. Heck, how many time have they said WWF/WWE and not one of you "smart" kiddies started a string about TNA being sued. if WWE doesnt try to sue over saying WWE then they wont sue over saying ECW. Oh, wait...they fucking couldnt even if they wanted to.

my god, how many references to other shows or businesses has WWE made over the years??? countless. were they ever sued by the owners of "this is your life"? did anyone sue when wwe said "cartman" or when they showed golga with a cartman doll? i dont recall rosie odonell suing wwe for using her likeness in a match against a fake trump. every week wwe mentions nfl, nhl, nascar and whatever else during their "did you know" piece but they never went to court. i dont see jim morrison's family suing over john morrisons character. why? BECAUSE THEY CANT!!

you "fans" are the death of wrestling. now plz stfu before you look any less intelligent than you do now.

 

[Samyael]

A point some people may not realize. TNA Wrestling is owned by Panda Energy International, i.e. Dixie's daddy. If Vince decides to sue for infringement rights, the name TNA won't have to be mentioned that much in the lawsuit. So the publicity may be considerably less than what some of you are figuring.

 

[Klown_Karnage]

Here's the thing on this issue. I wouldn't put it past Vinnie's ego to sue over this given his ownership of the ECW brand, but I also don't think it would go anywhere. Legal protections regarding "incidental use" go a long way. Yeah, it pretty much was an ECW reunion of sorts, but that was ECW before Vince, so I don't think it would apply.

Really, the legal personnel of TNA can't be that stupid. If they figured someone would sue the pants offa them for something, they wouldn't do it.