Shawne Merriman Says WWE Deal Fell Apart Because Of A Trademark Issue, ‘No Animosity At All’

Shawne Merriman has no gripes with WWE.

In 2014, WWE announced via The JBL & Cole Show that Shawne Merriman would be reporting to the Performance Center after appearing on the WrestleMania 30 pre-show. Later that year, it was reported that Merriman was no longer under contract to the company.

Speaking with Fightful for a new interview, Merriman noted that the deal didn’t work out because of a trademark issue.

“No, the following year after we kind of walked away from the deal and—I say both because it was the WWE and myself—which really came down to a trademark issue to be honest. I saw Paul at the ESPYs on the red carpet, I came up and gave him a big hug. I love the sport so much and I love that side of the business. It’s hard for me to have any animosity because the deal didn’t get done, it just didn’t work.”

Merriman continued on and praised TKO, saying that he’s open to working with the company.

“I’m always open to working and doing stuff with them and TKO what they’re doing right now is just ridiculous. You have Mark Shapiro and Ari and I know all these guys, and I got the opportunity to talk to them and be around them. So I understand that side of the business. So no animosity at all.”

When it comes to the premium live event deal between ESPN and WWE, the former All-Pro believes that it could help the company become huge soon.

“I don’t think people even understand how big they’re gonna be here soon. I saw a flyer the other day which tripped me out. This how far wrestling and combat sports and all that stuff has come. I saw a WWE poster with Disney. Did you see that? 15 years ago, nobody would have ever, ever believed that that was possible. I’ve been calling them the last couple of years. I said, I knew that Netflix years ago was going to get into sports. They’re going to get into live sports more than what they’re doing right now. They’re going to get into podcasts and so on. So having the ear and understanding where this industry is going gives us a leg up because we got a small, mighty team, man. Like we got a very, very sharp group of people that get things done and me understanding being around it for so long allows me to kind of jump ahead of the curve and not go through those speed bumps that somebody else would.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Shawne Merriman had high praise for TNA Wrestling, calling it the hottest wrestling company in the world. Check out his full comments here.

Fans can check out Fightful’s full interview with Shawne Merriman in the video linked at the top of this article.

After that, head over to our YouTube channel to catch our other interviews with names like Jamie Hayter, Simon Miller, and The Usos.