AEW Ownership Questions Raised As Lawsuit Fight Goes On

AEW’s lawsuit troubles could shine a light on who really owns Tony Khan’s company.

AEW and Jon Moxley have been the subject of a lawsuit following a match in 2023, where Moxley is accused of having shoved Christopher Dispensa to the ground. Dispensa claims the fall caused neck and shoulder injuries, and earlier this year, in June, he officially filed a lawsuit against AEW.

The suit alleges negligence, civil assault, and battery, all tied to that single episode of Dynamite. What’s more, the case now faces procedural hurdles, as AEW recently filed to move the lawsuit to federal court. Judge Matthew Leitman has reportedly asked the company to strengthen its case for that move.

But it seems the lawsuit could have wider implications for AEW as the company is fighting to keep its ownership status redacted in documents.

AEW Fighting Redactions Being Removed

Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer explained the current goings on in the case and explained his belief that Warner Bros. Discovery does have an ownership stake in Tony

The question they don’t want to redact is the ownership…Beatnick LLC, I believe it’s called, is the ownership group of AEW, and they said that it’s like 2 people who reside in Illinois, so Tony Khan and either his father or his sister. Based on filings in the Kevin Kelly and Tate twins lawsuit, they own over 90% and everybody else combined owns less than 10% if in fact there is anybody else.

There’s always been the talk of WBD owning a percentage. I’ve always believed that’s the case because anytime it’s been brought up with Tony Khan, like he never has confirmed it, but he’s never denied it, so I just assumed that they own some of it. For whatever reason, it’s never been said, I guess in this situation, it would come out or not, and they don’t want it to come out. Maybe there’s something that we don’t know.

Bryan Alvarez noted that the redactions could be removed in a week’s time, but Meltzer continued, noting that AEW is fighting to prevent that from happening:

AEW is fighting it and saying we don’t wanna do this, it’s not fair. They want to move it to federal court from state court. The judge basically said, “Well, if you want to move it to federal court, you’ve got to tell us”…They’re argument is that it shouldn’t be tried in Michigan because their company is incorporated in Delaware.

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