John Cena is now grappling with a legal showdown far from the squared circle after being accused of lifting a jazz horn riff from a 1974 recording to create his signature WWE entrance anthem, “The Time Is Now.”
A lawsuit filed by Kim Schofield claims the track’s iconic brass hook was built from an unauthorized sample of her late father Pete Schofield’s instrumental version of “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia.”
The suit names Cena, World Wrestling Entertainment, producer Jake One, TKO Group Holdings and music publisher Pix-Russ Music as defendants.
In the 32-page complaint, Kim Schofield accuses the group of “willful copyright infringement, fraudulent inducement, breach of contract and unjust enrichment.”
She alleges that Jake One looped and sampled the horn intro and outro of her father’s 1974 track, sections she says were original compositions unrelated to the Bobby Russell-penned song.
The lawsuit says WWE began using the beat in 2003, two years before any licensing deal existed and failed to disclose that fact during a later negotiation.
In 2017, WWE paid Schofield’s estate $50,000 to settle the issue, claiming the track had limited value. At the same time, the company was reportedly in talks to license the song for a Toyota commercial, a deal Schofield says was never disclosed to her.
Kim Schofield contends she was misled into signing the settlement while caring for her terminally ill mother and hospitalized husband. She says she only learned the full extent of the sample’s use after Jake One released a 2021 video explaining how he created the beat.
The suit also accuses WWE of breaching the 2017 agreement by releasing a new version of the song “Champ Is Here” that mimics the original horns with synthesizers. According to the complaint, WWE also failed to credit Pete Schofield or his PS Records label on newer merchandise and DVD releases.
In addition to Cena and WWE, the lawsuit targets the estate of Bobby Russell, specifically Pix-Russ Music and Cynthia Jo Russell, for collecting royalties on what Schofield alleges is her father’s original work. The complaint states they had “no creative connection” to the sampled material.
Schofield is asking the court to void the 2017 settlement, recognize her father as the rightful author of the horn sections, and order the defendants to turn over profits.
She is seeking damages of up to $150,000 per infringement, along with legal fees and an injunction to stop further use of the song.
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