Despite an agreement to move to arbitration last year, AEW and Ryan Nemeth remain at odds, with the promotion petitioning the court to compel Nemeth to arbitrate under the terms of his previous contract.
The former AEW performer filed a complaint in February 2025 against AEW, Tony Khan, and Phil Brooks (CM Punk) in the Superior Court of California, alleging assault, professional retaliation, and being blacklisted from the industry. He also accused AEW of breach of contract, breach of implied covenant of good faith, and fair dealing.
In April, Nemeth voluntarily dismissed the suit in Los Angeles Superior Court, agreeing to take the matter to private arbitration. Therefore, AEW dismissed its own petition in the U.S. District Court of Florida, where it was seeking to compel Nemeth to private arbitration, per the language of his AEW contract, where matters would be adjudicated.
One year later, AEW says that Nemeth has misrepresented and misled them through his conduct. The wrestling company filed a petition on June 5 in the U.S. District Court in the Middle District of Florida to compel Nemeth to arbitrate the dispute at a JAMS administrative office nearest to Duval County, Florida, and be adjudicated under Florida law.
JAMS is a private company designed to help resolve disputes and arbitrate. It is the company that AEW has designated in its contractual language to settle any disputes. It has 29 locations worldwide and is based in Irvine, California.
After agreeing to move to arbitration, AEW states that Nemeth filed a demand for arbitration with a JAMS office in Orange County, California, and added “an assortment of unsupported claims under the California Labor Code.” AEW states that the California Labor Code does not apply because Nemeth was not an employee and was classified as an independent contractor.
AEW attempted to move the claim to Florida last November, but on December 2, JAMS declined.
JAMS presented both sides with a list of ten potential arbitrators, with six located in California, three in Florida, and one in New York. The sides have the option to strike two of the options and rank the remaining in terms of preference. AEW argued that the number of California arbitrators favored Nemeth’s as opposed to the number of options in Florida and that arbitrating in California is “in violation of the express terms of the agreement.”
AEW seeks to have the terms of Nemeth’s contract deemed valid and enforceable, and to have Nemeth arbitrate his claims at the JAMS administrative office nearest to Duval County, Florida; accordingly, the arbitration would fall under Florida law. It also wants to prevent Nemeth from prosecuting an arbitration in violation of the agreement and is seeking “reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs incurred in this proceeding” and “any other such relief to which petitioners may be entitled.”
In a separate filing on Tuesday, AEW and Tony Khan are seeking to seal confidential information related to the three independent contractor agreements that Nemeth signed from 2021 to 2023. They argue that the agreements contain “sensitive, confidential and proprietary information belonging to the Petitioners, including but not limited to information related to its business practices, its internal economic structures, compensation agreements, and intellectual property.”
