A copyright lawsuit accusing WWE of using material from an independent wrestling promotion as inspiration for The Bloodline has officially been dismissed with prejudice.
Independent promoter Nathaniel Tatha-Nanandji, who promoted WCWA Wrestling in Arkansas, alleged that WWE copied a recurring visual sequence used by his Tier 1 faction, including the group forming together and raising one finger in the air. He claimed a similar sequence was later incorporated into The Bloodline’s presentation.
The court ultimately sided with WWE and the other defendants, ruling that Tatha-Nanandji failed to sufficiently establish that WWE had access to the copyrighted material or that the two sequences were substantially similar.
In its ruling, the court also noted that the Tier 1 sequence did not appear consistently throughout the evidence submitted by Tatha-Nanandji, while finding that the similarities presented did not meet the legal standard required for copyright infringement.
WWE and 2K had previously argued that there was no substantial similarity of protectable expression between the WCWA footage and The Bloodline’s poses, an argument the court ultimately agreed with.
The lawsuit has been dismissed **with prejudice**, meaning Tatha-Nanandji cannot re-file or resurrect the case before the court.
