A federal lawsuit has been filed in New York, accusing WWE, TKO, John Cena, and others of using an unlicensed sample in Cena's iconic entrance theme, 'The Time Is Now'. The dispute revolves around the horn arrangements, which are claimed to have been copied from a 1974 cover recording by the late Pete Schofield, a Canadian bandleader. Schofield's daughter, Kim Schofield, now owns the copyrights to the record and the original arrangement, which she asserts were sampled without proper credit or payment.
The case highlights a complex intellectual property dispute. Pete Schofield's recording was a cover of Bobby Russell's song, but he claims the original horn intro and outro were added and sampled for Cena's theme. The lawsuit hinges on whether these horn sections are protectable elements of Schofield's arrangement or an unlicensed derivative work.
Schofield alleges that in 2017, she reached a written settlement with WWE, receiving a one-time payment of $50,000. However, she now claims WWE withheld key information during negotiations, inducing her to sign the agreement. Schofield also seeks to void the settlement, citing WWE's failure to disclose long-term use of the sample and an upcoming national ad campaign.
The sampled material in Cena's theme is from Pete Schofield's instrumental 1974 cover of 'The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia'. The lawsuit asserts that the horn elements in the intro and outro of Schofield's version, which form the basis of Cena's theme, were not present in the original Russell version and were sampled by producer Jake One in 2003. Schofield's family only learned about the sampling in 2015, when a reporter contacted her.
The family settled with WWE for $50,000 in 2017. Schofield now seeks damages in excess of $150,000 and claims WWE violated the 2017 contract by releasing a 2019 version of the theme under a different title, which included a newly recorded imitation of the horn portion. Schofield also alleges WWE failed to provide proper credit to 'PS Records' as required by the settlement.
The defendants have not yet filed a response, and the case is ongoing. Schofield, representing herself, is also involved in a separate lawsuit against Sony Music and Epic Records over an unlicensed use of the same horn arrangement in a recent track by Dumar 1K.
