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The Hollywood Reporter reported that ESPN won a legal victory over former UWF wrestler Stevie "Wild Thing" Ray in the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals. Ray had alleged in a lawsuit that the Disney owned Sports Network violated his "privacy and publicity rights" according to Missouri law in regard to ESPN Classic re-airing episodes of the now-defunct Herb Abrams version of the UWF from the 1990s.
Ray was a regular of the promotion and one-half of the "Wet and Wild" tag team with Sunny Beach.
The three-judge panel echoed the conclusions of the Missouri District Judge, who ruled against Ray, citing that his claims were preempted by federal copyright law. In doing so, the panel implied that going forward, plaintiffs can only avoid preemption by going beyond an attempt to stop the rebroadcast of copyrighted content and proving something additional beyond the usage of their name or image caused an infringement against them.
In layman's terms, that means that it would be OK for ESPN to use the libraries they own, but if they used Ray's image in a media campaign promoting the series, they would need to come to terms with him on that.
The opinion, which you can read here, noted, "ESPN did not use Ray's likeness or name in an advertisement without his permission to promote its commercial products, and that the district court correctly noted, Ray's ‘likenesses could not be detached from the copyrighted performances that were contained in the films.'"
This of course comes just a few days after Tommy and Doug Gilbert announced a lawsuit against WWE and ESPN for the use of his Doug's likeness as well as the likeness of the late Eddie Gilbert, seeking royalties.
Whether this case can be used as legal standard going forward in that suit and other, similar suits that could be filed against the owners of wrestling libraries remains to the be seen, but the article does point out that lawsuits over college athletes likenesses and rights may be influenced by this decision down the line.
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