A few days ago indie wrestler LuFisto accused Combat Zone Wrestling of rebranding their archived pay per view titles as soft-core porn, an accusation that she says was met with backlash.
Today CZW issued the following statement on Twitter addressing the raunchy titles, including one that was called CZW Girlz: Top Heavy & Tough. The hardcore promotion states that they are in a licensing agreement with a third party national distributor who owns the licensing on all footage and has been repackaging and renaming shows.
Two years ago, CZW entered into a licensing agreement with a national media distributor to license CZW and WSU footage. That company has the right to utilize the footage without limitation. They have repackaged and renamed shows as it is their right to do so. Our athletes, regardless of gender, are just that, athletes, whom we are proud of and appreciate. We stand behind the ring action in all our footage.
Several pro-wrestling stars, including AEW’s Joey Janela and IMPACT Knockouts champion Jordynne Grace fired back at CZW, with Grace revealing that many talents have contacted lawyers about the issue.
She writes, “Just so everyone is aware, there are many women already speaking to lawyers about this, as releases were not signed to authorize licensing footage for profit and distribution.”
One star in particular is Kimber Lee. She writes on Twitter, “And I’m certain I NEVER signed an agreement giving you the right to sell my intellectual property…. nor did ANY of the women you’re blatantly disrespecting. Or how you told us all you wouldn’t book us if you wouldn’t f**k us. It’s about time the harassment gets exposed.”
Grace quote tweeted Lee and added, “I could f*ck any of y’all any time I want.” Sound familiar?”
Joey Janela says, “Or forcing girls to share hotels with him and cuddle with him.”
Lufisto later commented on the wrestling circuit rising up against CZW in an organized fashion. She writes, “The past 2 days, I’ve delt with targeted harassment, threats, gender devaluation and hate from some crazy fucks for calling out CZW. Tonight, I see wrestlers and staff members, men and women, standing together, being angry and speaking up! It’s a beautiful thing.”
See all the tweets below.