Christmas Day started off with a controversial bang thanks to a late-night social media post from former AEW and WWE World Champion Chris Jericho. The Golden Jet was moved to engage X after seeing comments from CM Punk and Ace Steel’s attorney, Stephen P New, stating that the only person in the room for the infamous post-AEW All Out brawl who is not under an NDA is Steel’s wife, Lucy. He also confirmed that Punk and Steel’s NDAs in regard to the incident are for life.
“I didn’t sign one….” Jericho wrote.
“It’s in your employee handbook unless you have a special one,” New responded. “We can figure it out.”
“Hey @StephenPNew,” Jericho began a 3:22 am post on Christmas Day. “I don’t adhere to an employee handbook and have NEVER had one in 4 years of working for @aew. Ive also never signed an NDA in my life ….ever. So stop trying to be a bully and making egotistical fantasy brags for your clients, and start doing some research before you make blanket statements about your buddies.
“Because I saw EVERYTHING that night…including how Lucy (and her husband and best buddy) acted and what really went down…and since I was in the room and watching her and everybody else the whole time..I know exactly what really happened. And considering you weren’t there and I was …maybe you should shut your mark ass up. Because what really went down was disgusting. ….”
“Thank you Chris,” New replied. “We will just attach this Tweet as Exhibit A. Merry Christmas.”
I was personally caught off-guard by Jericho saying he had “never signed an NDA in my life” since I had heard of situations in the past where others involved with him had. When I asked Jericho about that in a reply to his post, I was blocked.
Earlier today on Rumor & Innuendo, my co-host, former WWE creative team member and current full-time attorney Robert Karpeles, weighed in on Jericho’s response and how NDAs typically work.
“So typically when I’ve done NDAs for clients in the past, there’s usually a term limit, a time limit set on there,” he began. “Typically, an NDA is going to run one to five years. In an instance like this, this NDA was put in place to avoid litigation on both sides. There has been no lawsuit that has been filed based on the assault allegations that are out there. There were no arrests. Yes, it eventually led to Punk leaving the company; Punk was not fired after this incident. Ace Steel is the only person who wound up getting let go.”
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