LA Lucha has announced that they have postponed their event scheduled to take place today, Holiday Havoc, due to reported legal issues. The promotion states they were served with a cease and desist over the name LA Lucha.
The promotion released the following statement today:
Unfortunately, due to legal circumstances our show tonight is being postponed. Late last week I received a legal document from an attorney’s office located in Highland Park stating trademark infringement over the use of our name “L.A. Lucha.” After seeking legal representation to verify the documents I was assured on Wednesday this would not affect our show today.
Yesterday afternoon around 3:40 p.m., which was a few hours after I posted a tweet stating the show was still on, my legal representation was sent a letter stating a “CEASE AND DESISIT DEMAND” on our event tonight. I was given a hardcopy and email of said document. I notified my legal reps that we would still run and deal with the fallout next week as we have been promoting this event since late August. The morning around 9:00 a.m. I received a call from my legal reps and was advised again to postpone tonight’s show. I am told if I do not comply with said actions then law enforcement and legal rep from the attorney’s office would show up and attempt to shut the event down in person and I would be slapped with a lawsuit.
For legal reasons I can not give away the name of the individual/owner who served me the CEASE AND DESIST DEMAND (at least not yet). I can say that the trademark that is owned by the individual is not wrestling related. Despite operating for almost a whole year with the name “L.A. Lucha,” I am being told the individual/owner was unaware of our use of the name until the last month. More information will follow today and on through Monday.
I personally would like to apologize to the fans and talent. We had eight booked matches, flights were purchased and hotels were paid for and we had a ring crew from San Diego coming up. We have spoken with the venue for a possible November date as I am confident this issue would be resolved within the coming week. If any presales would like a refund while this sorts itself out please DM or email us and we’ll have this taken care of as soon as possible.
Again, my apologies to the fans and talent. The Lucha team has been planning and promoting this since August and we are all very disappointed and upset. Please stay tuned for any further announcements regarding this issue.
Please spread the word. Thank you.
I had inquired about the show last night prior to posting a story on their lineup, to which they just added Unicornio and Rey Leon to in the last couple of days, and was given no indication the show may be in jeopardy.
A quick search of the USPTO trademark database shows several live trademarks that include the terms “LA Lucha”, most notably by Sustainable Harvest, Inc for coffee.
There has been no explanation as to why the promotion couldn’t just run the event under a different name or why the trademark database was not searched prior to selecting a name for the promotion.
Ground Zero, which has an event in Imperial Beach tonight advised me that they would honor any tickets purchased for LA Lucha’s event at their event.
I heard that Disney was upset with the use of the “Rey Leon” name.