In a move that surprised literally no one, Lucha Libre FMV sent a cease and desist letter to the Los Angeles based promotion, PCW, threatening legal action. The letter was in regards to PCW taking bookings for Rey Fenix and Pentagon Jr. They also appear on Lucha Underground and in AAA as Fenix and Pentagon Dark respectively. Lucha Underground and AAA jointly own FMV. One does not have to be a detective to piece this one together.
As reported by Pro Wrestling Sheet, the lawyers for FMV made no bones about their clients’ concerns;
“In light of the above, we are sending you this communication requesting you to cease and refrain from the unauthorized and misuse of the intellectual property. And also please avoid hiring any person that uses such intellectual property or any other confusingly similar.”
PCW’s response?
“While we thank you for your concern with making sure that we are not going to use the names of performers or characters legally owned by your client, we can assure you that we are only promoting performers by names that either the performers control themselves or which no entity controls as of this date.”
It is perplexing that FMV would even have a case considering that while they did file for trademark for the Pentagon name, Rey Fenix filed for trademark several months before FMV. PCW doesn’t seem to be letting it affect them or their business decisions. However, it’s the business decisions of the owners of FMV that need to be called into question.
This potential case is the second in as many weeks. Last week, a TNA Impact Wrestling segment had Broken Matt Hardy and Brother Nero “teleport” to Mexico to challenge Psicosis and Super Crazy, who work for Konnan’s CRASH promotion. It turns out that the referee of the match was under contract with Lucha Underground. Instead of working out some sort of deal with TNA, Lucha Underground sent their classic cease and desist letter, trying to force them to scrap the footage. TNA forced their hand by airing the footage, but blurring out the referee’s face, possibly the first time this has ever happened in televised professional wrestling.
One has to wonder if Lucha Underground is worried about the wrong things. They don’t charge admission for their TV tapings, they don’t do many live events on the road, and are not on a high profile network, so their finances are in question. Ratings have been in decline for a while as well. Perhaps their attention should be more focused on improving their own product, rather than lawsuits that can come across as petty?
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