Who would’ve thought that the iconic blaring horns in the intro of John Cena’s “The Time Is Now” will see its day in court soon. According to court records obtained by Post Wrestling, a federal lawsuit was filed this past Tuesday against “The Never Seen 17,” WWE, TKO, and others over utilizing an unlicensed sample of the horn arrangement to create Cena’s theme music.
Filed by Kim Schofield, daughter of late Canadian bandleader, Pete, in the Southern District of New York, the complaint alleges that Cena’s theme music was copied from the plaintiff’s father’s arrangement made in 1974. Kim now owns the copyrights to the record and of her father’s music. Kim was unaware of the sampling of her father’s arrangement by Cena and WWE until a reporter reached out to her in 2015. She maintains in the suit that the horn arrangement is the original arrangement, despite concerns that Pete’s arrangement was a cover of a Bobby Russell song.
Kim and WWE have battled once before in court in 2017, where she reached a written settlement with WWE and received a one-time $50,000 payment from the company in that settlement. However, she claims the titan company withheld important information from her in an effort to get her to sign the settlement. The suit is looking to void that settlement and the detail withheld from Kim was the usage of the horns in a national Toyota commercial. That settlement was agreed on two days before the commercial premiered.
This brass arrangement has been the glue to Cena’s sported theme since March of 2005, prior to the release of Cena’s only studio album “You Can’t See Me,” in May of that year. The Cenation Leader will run through the WWE curtain and compete one final time on Saturday, December 13, either against LA Knight or GUNTHER. Whether the song that’s been synonymous with Cena’s lionized career will be played next Saturday as part of his last match remains undetermined as of this report.
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