Kevin Kelly & Tate Twins Appeal Decision To Send AEW Lawsuit To Arbitration

Kevin Kelly and the Tate Twins have filed their appeal of the decision to send their lawsuit against AEW to arbitration. As you may recall, the three lost their attempt to prevent the defamation suit to be sent to arbitration back in June. Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics reports that the Tates and Kelly’s lawyer Stephen P. New filed the appeal on Tuesday asking to reverse the judge’s decision to send the case to private arbitration.

Thurston reports that the appeal argues that the judge erred in not allowing discovery in the case before making his ruling, and by ruling that the Tates and Kelly didn’t attack the delegation clause. The appeal essentially argues that AEW’s arbitration clauses are unfair to the point that they meet the legal standard for a judge to prevent arbitration enforcement. They are arguing that they were unable to negotiate the clauses and were not told the costs of arbitration, as well as having to conduct arbitration in Florida despite not living there.

The appeal also argues that they were not told the rules of arbitration, were pressured to sign and thus had no real choice, making them “unconscionabile” and unenforceable. The judge ruled that the Arbitration clause includes a delegation clause which means that these issues should be decided in arbitration, but New argues that despite the judge’s ruling otherwise, they did attack the delegation clause as allegations against arbitration also apply to delegation.

Kelly and the Tate Twins (aka The Boys) filed suit against AEW, Tony Khan, and Ian Riccaboni on September 6th of 2024 seeking to void the trios’ arbitration clauses in their contracts and certify a class-action lawsuit, arguing that AEW is misclassifying its talent as independent contractors rather than employees.