FloSports, the parent company of FloSlam, filed an amended lawsuit against WWNLive Inc, the parent company of EVOLVE Wrestling and its related sister promotions on November 2nd, according to a report from PWInsider.com who note that the lawsuit, where FloSports are seeking $1 million in damages, revolves around allegations that WWNLive, run by Sal Hamaoui and Gabe Sapolsky, had robbed FloSports by providing false information that led to the streaming provider paying inflated prices for WWNLive content.

The report notes that on November 13th, WWNLive filed a motion, requesting that the lawsuit be dismissed, citing that the suit was filed in a venue (Texas) that lacks jurisdiction over WWNLive, however FloSports filed their response on November 27th stating that WWNLive had induced them into paying hundreds of thousands of dollars with falsified records and that WWNLive had elected that their agreement, when signed in Texas, would be governed by Texas State rules.

In a 22-page filing, requesting a change of venue, WWNLive argued that their business was based in Florida, as are their business records and bank accounts and therefore, they were not under Texas jurisdiction, noting that their only dealings in Texas were WWNLive President Sal Hamaoui traveling to Texas in October 2016 and January 2017, the first trip to meet with FloSports during the courtship period and the latter to sign the deal with FloSports, with a copy of the deal filed with the court dated October 21st, 2016.

WWNLive noted multiple times in the filing that FloSports had initiated their business relationship, that WWNLive were not contractually obligated to focus their business in Texas and that out of the 53 events that they promoted under their deal with FloSports, only 2 of those events were held in Texas, with the majority of the events held in Florida. WWNLive also argued that the case being heard in Texas would be a personal hardship for the company, as those with working knowledge of the company live in Florida (Sal Hamaoui) and Massachusetts (Gabe Sapolsky) and would force them to travel regularly to Texas, a venue where they have no holdings, business dealings or connections to the community.

Meanwhile, the report notes that Phil Wendler, who was identified as FloSports’ Senior Vice President of Global Rights Acquisition and Subscription, filed a statement with the court arguing that the case should indeed be heard in Texas, noting that discovery conducted so far has revealed at least 368 e-mails sent from WWNLive representatives to FloSports representatives based in Austin, Texas during rhe course of the parties’ dealings, in addition to numerous text messages, several conference calls between the parties and the in-person meetings in Texas, before also stating that WWNLive would have run addition events in Texas in November, during WWE Survivor Series weekend, had FloSports not revoked their deal with WWNLive and filed the lawsuit.

The report notes that the contract between FloSports and WWNLive was also revealed in the filings on November 27th, noting that it called for WWNLive to be paid $75,000 in 2016, $500,000 in 2017, $550,000 in 2018, $605,000 in 2019, $670,000 in 2020 and finally, $740,000 in 2021 and that the contract also called for incentives to be paid to WWNLive under the following conditions, “In addition to the Rights Fee described in Section 3a, FloSports will pay an incentive to Events Rights Holder if financial performance exceeds specified levels. Events Rights Holder will receive the greater of the Rights Fee listed in Section 3a or 30% of total Net Cash attributed to WWN over the course of the year. Example: Net cash in 2017 equals $1,000,000. Events Right Holder receives a total of $500,000. Net cash in 2018 equals $3,000,000. Events Right Holder receives a total of $900,000”.

The contract also called for FloSports to promote the WWNLive events, promising that they would provide $250,000 of advertising value per year on FloSports, such as digital display, e-mail newsletters, social media, editorial previews, coverage, recaps and more, but how that amount of advertising value may have been added up is not directly explained in any of the court documents.

The report further states that in their November 27th filing, FloSports alleged that they paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to WWNLive in reliance on this promise, but that WWNLive’s data was false and when pressed for the data that backed up WWNLive’s representations, WWNLive originally claimed that the data was lost or deleted and that ultimately, WWNLive sent records listing subscribers more than once and included customers who had not purchased broadcast services, stating that even accounting for that artificial inflation of its viewership, WWNLive’s numbers proved far less than originally represented. WWNLive responded to those claims stating that the data was pulled from and compiled by a now-defunct third-party company named Fineline Hosting that was based in Florida.

FloSports accompanied a number of documents in the filing on November 27th, including a spreadsheet that was sent by Sal Hamaoui to Tobey Mergler, the then FloSports Vice President who handled the deal and left FloSports in August of this year. The spreadsheet included buys for WWNLive events held in 2015 and 2016, noting that for EVOLVE Wrestling events, those ranged from 539 buys to 2,479 buys, with the events on the higher end being shows that were specifically promoted online by the WWE and that for SHINE internet pay-per-view events, those ranged from 525 to 729 buys, while Full Impact Pro events ranged from 24 buys to 288 buys.