WWE & Cody Rhodes Lawsuit Latest Update

Published: Apr 11, 2025 by Connel Rumsey | Last Updated: Jul 9, 2025 by Connel Rumsey

Connel has over five years of wrestling journalism experience writing about some of the biggest stories from across the wrestling world. Being a fan for 20 years, Connel has an expansive knowledge from a wide range of various wrestling promotions, including WWE, AEW, NJPW, TNA and Joshi.

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A new update has emerged on a lawsuit situation involving Cody Rhodes, real name Cody Runnels, WWE, and Fanatics.

In 2024, a lawsuit was filed against Rhodes, WWE and Fanatics by musician Wesley Eisold, who heads up a band called American Nightmare – a name shared by Cody Rhodes as his nickname.

In the suit, Eisold alleged “trademark infringement, breach of contract, and intentional interference with contractual relations”. Eisold has held a registered trademark for American Nightmare since 2016 for various uses related to music, and also for merchandise.

At the time the lawsuit was filed, POST Wrestling reported:

In March 2019, Cody Rhodes applied to register the trademark “The American Nightmare” for wrestling-related activities. Eisold, who had registered a similar trademark earlier, opposed Rhodes’ applicant.

The parties eventually agreed to a settlement in March 2021 to resolve the dispute, ultimately allowing Rhodes to register the trademark. At that time Rhodes was under contract to AEW. He later returned to WWE in 2022, where he continued to use the trademark.

Under the settlement terms, Rhodes was allowed to use “American Nightmare” on his merchandise under the condition that such items prominently used Rhodes’ name, likeness, or wrestling-related imagery in a size at least 75% larger than the “American Nightmare” text, according to the settlement agreement provided as an exhibit to Eisold’s complaint. In exchange, Rhodes agreed to a one-time payment to the musician of $30,000.

Eisold now claims that Rhodes, WWE, and Fanatics have violated that agreement by selling merchandise items that fail to meet those conditions.

Eisold’s claim is essentially that some of the Cody Rhodes merch sold by WWE and Fanatics doesn’t uphold the 75% agreement and the American Nightmare phrase is featured too prominently, creating confusion such as the bands’ fans mistakenly buying Rhodes merch, or WWE fans accidentally tagging the band in social media posts about Rhodes.

Per the suit, Eisold seeks “damages of at least $150,000, as well as treble damages of up to $300,000 related to federal trademark infringement”.

In the previous report from PWInsider, Cody, WWE and Fanatics were given a deadline of April 7 to respond to the suit, and with today being April 11, there has now been another update.

In the latest update from PWInsider, Cody, WWE and Fanatics have requested and been granted a second extension in their time to respond to the lawsuit, with the defendants now needing a response by June 7.

We’ll keep you posted with any further updates.