Judge Orders Kevin Kelly & Tate Twins Lawsuit Against AEW Moved To Arbitration

Kevin Kelly and the Tate Twins’ lawsuit against AEW has been ordered to move to arbitration. As you likely recall, Kelly and the Tate Twins (aka The Boys) filed suit against AEW, Tony Khan, and Ian Riccaboni on September 6th of last year 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. Kelly is also alleging Riccaboni and AEW of defamation in regard comments by Riccaboni about Kelly’s support of Sound of Freedom, while the Tates accuse Tony Khan of defamation in regard to claims that they no-showed events.

Brandon Thurston reports on POST Wrestling that a federal judge in Florida ordered the case moved to private arbitration, agreeing with AEW’s request to uphold the arbitration clauses in their talent contracts. The notion denied AEW’s motion to dismiss and ordered the case to be “administratively closed,” which sometimes happens with arbitration moves and deactivates the case as the arbitration process proceeds.

The plaintiffs will now need to update the court on the status of arbitration every 90 days from here and they may appear on public dockets but may not give details on what is going on.

Stephen P. New, who is representing Kelly and the Tate Boys, said in a statement to the outlet, “We look forward to pursuing the plaintiffs’ claims in arbitration.” AEW has not yet provided a comment.