Buff Bagwell and Raven’s Lawsuit Against WWE Dismissed, What Could Be Added To WWE Network

The lawsuits from Marcus Bagwell (aka Buff Bagwell) and Scott Levy (aka Raven) have been dismissed.

The United States District Court of Connecticut officially dismissed the lawsuits between Bagwell and Levy on Thursday, according to a report today by PWInsider.com. It’s not exactly confirmed what led to the dismissal, but it seems that all parties are working toward a settlement.

The case was dismissed with prejudice, which means neither can sue WWE for these claims again.

Both lawsuits had to deal with royalties that they felt they were not getting as part of their contractual agreement with the WWE. Both Levy and Bagwell accused WWE of breaching their contracts by failing to pay direct sales royalties related to WWE Network content that featured them in skits and matches. Levy’s lawsuit further said that with the purchase of ECW and WCW in 2001, those libraries should fall under the royalty rate that he was promised by WWE. Bagwell’s suit says that he had not been paid any royalties since 2014 when the WWE Network launched.

The lawsuit also claimed that WWE failed to agree to its fiduciary duty to Levy and Bagwell because WWE was in a better position when it came to knowing royalties they owed to talent.

With this dismissal, it seems likely that WCW Thunder and WWF/WWE Sunday Night Heat will be added to the WWE Network within the next few months. After the lawsuits were filed and early attempts to have it dismiss failed on WWE’s part, WWE sources indicated that plans to add Sunday Night Heat and WCW Thunder were both halted, even though the complete runs of each series were prepared and ready to be added to the WWE Network.

Bagwell appeared on WCW Thunder throughout the run of the series from 1998 to 2001. Levy, meanwhile, appeared on WCW Thunder in 1998 and 1999, as well as Sunday Night Heat from 2000 through 2002. WWE decided against adding episodes from both series a few months ago due to potential damages should the courts not rule in WWE’s favor. WWE also looked into whether it was feasible to remove content featuring the two from the Network. The company took the issue so seriously, they put research into whether it was worth removing all signs of Levy and Bagwell from the WWE Network. This, however, would be quite difficult with Bagwell since he was a member of the nWo from 1996 to 1999, which dominated WCW programming during those years.