Ryan Nemeth details finding out that he was being served with a lawsuit by AEW the weekend of his off-Broadway debut.
Nemeth recently claimed that he was being sued by a billionaire before his off-Broadway debut. this was seemingly related to the lawsuit that he filed against Tony Khan, AEW, and CM Punk, in which he alleged assault and breach of contract, among other claims.
In a post on his Substack, Ryan Nemeth elaborated on his comments.
“Let’s back up a bit. I was on the receiving end of some pretty insane abuse from my former employer,” Nemeth wrote. “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?)
“After all my options to amicably resolve my issues with the company were exhausted, I was forced to defend myself with an attorney. We did what normal people do: we gave my former employer a very fair, discreet, and reasonable heads up by contacting his legal team (to paraphrase: “Hey guys, we’re going to be filing a legal complaint. Here is the complaint, you can even look at it ahead of time.”) Nobody was ambushed. Nobody was caught off-guard. In fact, one might argue that me choosing the unfortunate lawsuit option was telegraphed very clearly by two years of me trying all the other non-lawsuit options. Finally, after that very fair, very professional heads up, we filed.”
Ryan Nemeth On Getting Served With A Lawsuit
Nemeth continued by saying that he was approached by a man at the theater, and he said that he was there to serve him legal papers. Specifically, he was told that he was being given “a legal notice that my former employer was suing me to move our legal dispute to arbitration, i.e., to keep everything private.”
Nemeth went on to note that he saw that he was being sued by Tony Khan and AEW, and he said that he didn’t see it coming. Later in the post, he reflected on the way that the lawsuit was delivered 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.
Ryan Nemeth Says AEW Tried To Humiliate Him
Nemeth went on to note that he had been respectful and professional with his own legal actions, and he said that “he”, presumably referring to Khan, could have done this in a professional manner. Nemeth called the way he was served with a lawsuit an attempt to humiliate him.
“I thought of the respectful, professional heads up we gave him,” he said. “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.”
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