AUSTIN, Texas — Wrestling and entertainment company WWE filed a lawsuit against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton after Paxton’s office went back on a decision to keep bidding information from a wrestling event in San Antonio private.

What You Need To Know

  • WWE has filed a lawsuit against Attorney General Ken Paxton after Paxton's office decided that a contract between WWE and the City of San Antonio is not confidential

  • It began when media outlet Wrestlenomics requested the contract be publicized. The contract included how much the city paid WWE to hold the 2023 Royal Rumble in the Alamo City 

  • WWE has said that granting Wrestlenomics access to the contract would give WWE a disadvantage in negotiations. But Wrestlenomics argues that the contract is public information
  • WWE filed the lawsuit 345th Civil District Court in Travis County. A trial date has not yet been set

It began when Brandon Thurston, a reporter with media outlet Wrestlenomics, requested the release of a contract between WWE and the City of San Antonio. The documents include how much the local government paid WWE to hold the 2023 Royal Rumble in the Alamo City.

WWE hosted its Royal Rumble at San Antonio’s Alamodome on Jan. 28, 2023. It’s common for cities to bid on the opportunity to host larger WWE events and for their local governments to offer a financial subsidy to the company in exchange for hosting, according to WFAA.

The City of San Antonio objected to releasing that contract, a decision that was granted by the attorney general’s office in April 2023, according to Wrestlenomics. WWE has said that the agreement is a trade secret and is protected from publication under Texas’ public information law.

In a statement, WWE Senior VP of Communications Chris Legentil explained how granting Wrestlenomics access to the contract would give WWE a disadvantage in negotiations.

“If this information was made publicly available and Brandon Thurston was permitted to publicize our financial information and negotiated terms on Wrestlenomics, WWE would lose our bargaining power in negotiating all of our live events and much of the value of a bidding process for venues,” Legentil said.

On Jan. 17, 2024, the attorney general’s office decided that the contract is not confidential.

“WWE has failed to provide specific factual evidence demonstrating the information at issue is confidential under Texas’s public information law,” Texas Assistant AG Michelle Garza wrote in a letter detailing the reversal.

But Wrestlenomics argues that the contract is public information.

“Records related to Royal Rumble 2023 were eligible for public records request because the Alamodome is owned and operated by the city government. A contract between the City of San Antonio and WWE is also a public record because one of the parties is a government entity,” Thurston wrote in an article.

The lawsuit will determine whether the contract information will be granted to Wrestlenomics. Neither Wrestlenomics nor Thurston is being sued.

WWE filed the lawsuit 345th Civil District Court in Travis County, where the attorney general’s office is located in Austin, Texas. A trial date has not yet been set.