In an update on the reports that TNA Wrestling President Billy Corgan has filed a lawsuit against TNA Wrestling, its Chairman Dixie Carter and several other people, a new report from PWInsider.com notes that TNA Wrestling’s former production company, Audience of One Productions LLC in Virginia, filed a lawsuit on September 27th in the United States District Court, Eastern District of Virginia against TNA Wrestling’s parent company Impact Ventures LLC, TNA Wrestling’s minority owner Aroluxe LLC, TNA Wrestling’s Chief Financial Officer Dean Broadhead and Ronald Dean Harris (aka Ron Harris) seeking $223,000 plus interest and post-judgment costs for breach of contract, fraudulent inducement on the behalf of Harris and Broadhead, torturous interference on behalf of Aroluxe and for the defendants violating Virginia code.

The report notes that the lawsuit states that TNA Wrestling began conversations with Audience Of One Productions in 2015 about a possible long-term, multi-event, production services agreement, pursuant to which Audience of One would provide a variety of production services for live TNA Wrestling events, including audio/visual and broadcasting work, lighting, set construction and breakdown, as well as retention and payment of audience “wranglers” (personnel who would patrol the crowd to try to engage the audience members with the event) among other things and that before and during the negotiations between the two companies, TNA Wrestling’s production was overseen by Ron Harris and Don Harris and upon information and belief, that the Harris Brothers were not providing sufficiently high-quality production work to TNA, despite their industry experience and that Audience of One understood that one of the reasons TNA Wrestling initially sought a long-term business relationship with Audience of One was due to Dean Broadhead’s dissatisfaction with production services work previously provided by the Harris Brothers.

The report goes on to note that the two sides began working together specifically on Universal Studios tapings, with the lawsuit alleging that Broadhead and Ron Harris consistently represented to Audience of One that these two events were on the verge of a long and fruitful relationship and that TNA Wrestling came to Audience of One and hired them to produce the 2015 TNA Bound For Glory pay-per-view, despite the fact that TNA Wrestling was apparently in dire financial straits at the time of these negotations, with reports in the media suggesting that, among other financial woes, that TNA Wrestling were behind on paying some of its key talent and that after the show, Audience of One billed TNA Wrestling for $223,000 for services rendered in October. The lawsuit alleges that the following month, Dean Broadhead, in an e-mail to Audience of One, stated that TNA Wrestling were working on finalizing a new deal that would put the company in 80 million homes and stated that the company were planning to go back into Universal Studios in 2016 and get back on the right track with their production and requested Audience of One to hang in there with them as they would come out of their difficult times in a much better position as a company and a partner. Audience of One alleges that this e-mail was sent to prevent them from moving to more aggressive collection attempts on the money owed and that the lawsuit allegs that Audience of One sent a second invoice, which included a 1.5% late fee in November and that Ron Harris requested an itemized invoice before Audience of One could be paid and that the communications included discussions on a new set design and that Audience of One allege that TNA Wrestling were having discussions with other vendors at the same time.

The lawsuit notes that in January 2016, Audience of One reduced the amount that TNA Wrestling owed them by $29,001 and 57 cents, noting that the amount was removed as Dean Broadhead directly paid some of the independent contractors who had worked on TNA Bound For Glory production, so Audience of One no longer needed to pay those contractors themselves and that Audience of One allege that TNA Wrestling made those payments directly to ensure that those contractors would continue to work for TNA Wrestling after the company cut ties from Audience of One. The lawsuit also alleges that Broadhead opened into discussions with Jeff Wade, who is the owner of Audience of One, regarding a payment plan to begin to reimburse Audience of One for money owed from the 2015 TNA Bound For Glory event and that based on the agreement, the money would be paid in monthly installments, starting in March 2016 through August 2016 and that TNA Wrestling stated that they were on track to begin to make payment, however upon information and belief, TNA’s financial troubles had become increasingly severe by this time, yet Broadhead, who would have been familiar with those financial troubles, failed to share any relevant information with Audience of One, which continued to negotiate in good faith with TNA Wrestling and Dean Broadhead over repayment terms for the 2015 TNA Bound For Glory event.

The report goes on to state that the lawsuit claims that in March 2016, Aroluxe provided some form of financing to TNA Wrestling, which upon information and belief, was sufficient to allow TNA Wrestling to continue operating for the foreseeable future and that this financing was secured with a lien on all or nearly all of the company’s assets, including, but not limited to, all accounts receivable, as well as all fixtures, inventory and equipment and alleges that financing gave Aroluxe and, by extension, the Harris Brothers, two of Aroluxe’s principals, considerable incentive to oversee and coordinate TNA Wrestling’s financial affairs going forward and on March 18th, 2016, TNA Wrestling were to wire the first payment, but 12 hours later, Broadhead told Audience of One that the company could not wire the money, which was later received via FedEx and that the lawsuit alleges that upon information and belief, this failure to make a timely wire transfer to Audience of One resulted from intervention by Aroluxe and/or Ron Harris, who at this point, had every incentive to disrupt and delay payments to Audience of One so that other creditors could be paid sooner and that from that point on, TNA Wrestling did not respond to invoices regarding money owed to Audience of One. The lawsuit claims that as of June 2016, Aroluxe, through two of its principals, the Harris Brothers, were handling TNA Wrestling’s production efforts and administering its accounts payable, presumably because of the prior infusion of capital by Aroluxe, which was reportedly keeping the company afloat and alleges that Broadhead and Harris were responsible for dragging out payment with false promises of future work as a way to get Audience of One to agree to the repayment plan, which TNA Wrestling did not maintain.