WWE Moves For Default Judgment Against Texas AG’s Office, No Response To Lawsuit Over Release Of Royal Rumble 2023 Agreement

As previously reported, WWE filed a lawsuit against Texas’ attorney general seeking to prevent their “proprietary information” around bidding for the 2023 Royal Rumble from being released. The lawsuit was filed after Wrestlenomics requested records from the city of San Antonio to report on ticket sales and what was provided by the city to bring the Rumble to the area. WWE argued that it should be exempt because the material would contain “trade secrets”.

Wrestlenomics reports that the Texas Attorney General’s office has not responded to WWE, so WWE moved for a default judgment last month, April 9. There is a hearing scheduled for May 29 at 9 AM local time with WWE’s attorney from Holland & Knight LLP, Tricia R. DeLeon, and Judge Jan Soifer.

Wrestlenomics also noted that it has made an additional request for similar information to the Governor’s Office of Texas for both the 2023 Rumble and Wrestlemania 38 in Dallas/Arlington. With the latter, it was once again to see what the government paid WWE to bring the event there, which is estimated to be around $9 million. With Wrestlemania, the Governor’s Office requested the AG approve an exemption so they don’t have to release the information, which is called Deliberative Process Privilege. This is because of something that involves “inter- or intra-agency communication.”

They are seeking two exemptions for the Rumble request: Deliberative Process Privilege and Common Law Privacy. The Governor’s Office said there is “information that is intimate and embarrassing and not of legitimate concern to the public, including financial decisions that do not relate to transactions between an individual and a governmental body.”

The exemption requires that publishing of the information be “highly objectionable to a reasonable person” and “not of legitimate public concern.”