Lawsuit Filed Against John Cena And WWE Over Use Of Horns In ‘My Time Is Now’ Theme
A federal lawsuit was filed against WWE, TKO, John Cena, and others over the use of an unlicensed sample on Cena’s “My Time Is Now” theme. The dispute centers around the horns used in theme.
According to Brandon Thurston of POST Wrestling, the lawsuit was filed by Kim Schofield, who claims that the horn-driven intro and outro used in Cena’s theme music were copied from a 1974 cover recording arranged by her father Pete Schofield.
Schofield’s recording was a cover of a Bobby Russell song, but the lawsuit asserts that the horn intro and outro added were original, and those are the parts she claims were sampled for the Cena theme.
Music producer “Jake One” Jacob Brian Dutton, music publisher Pix-Russ Music, and Cynthia Jo Russell. Dutton are also named as defendants.
From POST:
According to the complaint, the sampled material in Cena’s theme comes from Pete Schofield’s instrumental 1974 cover of “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia,” which added original horn parts not present in the original song composed by Russell, and memorably recorded by Vicki Lawrence as a hit single in 1973, and later re-recorded by Reba McEntire.
The lawsuit asserts that the horn elements in the intro and outro of the Schofield version, which make up the backbone of the Cena theme, are not present in the Russell version and were sampled by Dutton in 2003 to produce the base of what became one of the most recognizable wrestling theme songs.
Schofield alleges that she reached a written settlement with WWE in 2017, and received a one-time payment of $50,000. She now claims WWE withheld key information during negotiations to induce her to sign the agreement and is asking the court to void the agreement.
From POST:
The Schofield family doesn’t claim ownership of the original Bobby Russell composition. Instead, they assert that specifically, the intro and outro are the Schofields’ original copyrightable work.
In 2024 and 2025, Kim Schofield registered two copyrights with the U.S. Copyright Office: one for the key musical arrangement elements (the intro and outro sampled in Cena’s theme), and another for the full 1974 sound recording. We verified that both registrations appear on the Copyright Office’s website.
The Russell estate and its music publisher, Pix-Russ, have challenged the registrations, according to Schofield’s account, arguing that the Schofield arrangement is an unauthorized derivative work. The complaint counters that the Russell side accepted royalties for horn parts, which Schofield says were original to her father.
Along with getting the original settlement invalidated, Schofield is seeking to recover damages in excess of $150,000.
The defendants have not yet filed a response to the complaint, and court records don’t show that any of them have formally received the lawsuit.
Cena is set to compete in his retirement match on December 13th.
