This past week, Ryan Nemeth changed his Twitter bio to, "Raise your hand if you a literal billionaire sent someone to sue you 4 minutes before you walked onstage for your off-Broadway debut play this weekend. [Raising hand emoji]."
On his Substack, Nemeth recalled exactly what happened.
"Let’s back up a bit. I was on the receiving end of some pretty insane abuse from my former employer. I did all the things you’re supposed to do: I communicated. I spoke to HR. I spoke to Legal. I spoke to my bosses. I kept records. I have witnesses. I was even offered a settlement. Then, instead of those terms being honored, in a very bizarre pseudo U-turn of events, I was offered a new contract with AEW in lieu of pursuing legal action. (For those of you wondering, I said “No, thanks.”). Oddly enough, I was also told the lawyer who offered me the original settlement had no authority to do so (that sounds like serious organizational dysfunction, but who am I to say?)" he wrote.
Nemeth filed a lawsuit in February against Tony Khan, AEW, and CM Punk alleging assault, breach of contract, breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing and intentional interference with prospective advantage. Fans can read parts of the lawsuit here.
Nemeth fast-forwarded to the weekend, where he was set to debut in an off-Broadway play.
From Nemeth:
The night of our second, and final, performance, I was approached by a man in the theater lobby just outside the restrooms. He said he was there to serve me legal papers (“Hey, sorry, you’re gettin’ sued”), and apologized for doing it at this inopportune time. He was giving me a legal notice that my former employer was suing me to move our legal dispute to arbitration, i.e., to keep everything private.
Andrew, the writer and director of the play, saw this interaction, became alarmed, and asked what was happening.
I said, “Oh, I’m being sued by a billionaire right now.”
Andrew’s jaw dropped. “WHAT!” I could understand his shock- we were about to go on!
The man then told me he was a wrestling fan, and that his son was a wrestler on his school team, or maybe had an interest in joining (it was hard to keep this all straight, as I had so much going through my head at the time), and he even asked about the play and if he could stay to watch it. To be honest, he was nice enough. I could tell he didn’t want to be doing this to me, four minutes before curtains went up.
I looked at the large stack of paperwork he’d just handed me. I saw the main bullet points: “Tony Khan... All Elite Wrestling... A lawsuit has been filed against you…”
“Did you know this was coming?” the man asked me, quite sincerely.
“Nope.” I told him, honestly.
A friend of mine who had come to the show walked past. “Hey- are you okay?”
“Tony Khan is suing me.” I held up the paperwork and forced a smile. “Enjoy the show!”
The show went on and Nemeth took the stage. He that night was the best performance of the two that weekend.
Nemeth circled back to the lawsuit and when it was handed to him.
After we wrapped, I took a moment alone and thought of the lawsuit and the manner in which it was delivered to me. For those of you with the knee-jerk reaction of “That’s how it works, idiot! He doesn’t get to choose when they serve you!” I’ll say this: my former employer, a billionaire, definitely had a choice. He could have very easily sent the notice to my attorney; he has his contact info. (I mean, my attorney’s contact information is printed quite clearly on the paperwork that I was served, so there goes that excuse.) He could have had it sent to my attorney on Monday morning, or any morning, for that matter. So, yeah, my first thought was also, “Well, this wasn’t intentional.” But, it kinda was. The billionaire in question definitely has my attorney’s information, as does his legal team and any independent counsel he’s gotten involved in this. These are aggressive tactics that I believe are designed to intimidate me and to stop me from speaking up about how I was treated.
I thought of the respectful, professional heads up we gave him. I thought of the two years of respectful, professional consideration and patience I gave him, trying to resolve this all without resorting to anybody suing anybody. He could have also done this in a professional, respectful manner. Instead he and his lawyers chose to send someone to Astoria, Queens, NYC, on a Saturday night, to find me in the lobby of small 150-seat theater, in front of family, friends, and theatre goers, mere minutes before I stepped onstage, in a pathetic attempt to humiliate and intimidate me.
So, I’d like to give him the benefit of the doubt, but at this point it’s kinda hard to. I tried giving him the benefit of the doubt for the last two years, actually. At some point the one man who single-handedly runs the entire company can’t just claim plausible deniability at every turn, on every issue that seems remotely negative. I mean, do you run your company, or not?
I don’t know what it’s like to be a billionaire; I never will. I don’t know what it’s like to be a high-powered lawyer. But I do know that there are more humane and professional ways to approach this. I do know that I was surrounded by amazing people this past Saturday night- the cast and crew that put on a super fun show, the writer/director who made it all happen, and the packed houses of wonderful people both nights who came to see live theatre, laughed, cheered, and had an amazing time. I’m grateful to have been part of it, despite a weird rich guy and his lawyers’ attempts to sour it. Thank you Andrew for producing original live shows, and thanks for inviting me to be part of one!
Nemeth signed with TNA Wrestling in 2024 after departing AEW.
AEW and Khan, filed a petition in the U.S. District Court in the Middle District of Florida, seeking to compel the lawsuit filed by Nemeth into arbitration. Fans can learn more here.
