John Cena isn’t ready to cave to Ford’s lawsuit just yet. The 16-time WWE champion is fighting back against the Blue Oval with a lawsuit of his own, claiming that Ford’s suit had the legitimacy of a Vince McMahon championship reign because the final contract he signed said nothing about the automaker’s resale clause that forbid Ford GT owners from selling before 24 months of ownership had passed. What was thought to be an open-and-shut case in the beginning has evolved into a rivalry that has the makings of a main event match at Wrestlemania 33. Who do you have? Cena or Ford?

I don’t have a prizefighter in this match because it’s hard to see which side is going to win here. Both Ford and Cena have a point in their respective cases. As ridiculous as it sounds, Ford’s requirement that all owners of the Ford GT keep their cars in the first 24 months of their ownership has been well-documented. It wasn’t the most popular of decisions, but the automaker was protecting the supercar from getting flipped in the secondary market looking to make a quick profit out of it. In Ford’s eyes, Cena violated that agreement, prompting Ford to take action against the WWE superstar.

This is where it gets interesting. After first apologizing for selling his GT, Cena is now coming back at Ford with a motion of his own. According to those documents, Ford did not include its 24-month, no-resale stipulation in the final dealer’s sales agreement, making Ford’s claim invalid. Part of Cena’s motion included a tidbit that said that the wrestler and the automaker agreed that any resale restriction would be included in the dealership’s sales agreement. Since there wasn’t one, Cena believes that Ford’s lawsuit has no legs to stand on.

From the looks of things, the screw up falls squarely on the shoulders of the Ford dealership — Elder Ford of Tampa — that sold Cena his Ford GT. Ford did its diligence in mentioning the clause in the order confirmation and the affidavit of eligibility and release, documents that Cena himself signed. The clause was also included in the terms and conditions of the Ford GT program. It was all there in the documents, except the last one that might turn out to be the most important one if a judge decides that the final sales agreement precludes the earlier agreements Cena signed with Ford.

Whichever way this legal battle goes, I don’t see either party winning here in the end. Ford will come out as being exceedingly petty, and Cena will look like a car flipper. Either way, this is not the kind of publicity either party is looking for.

References

Ford GT

Read our full review on the 2017 Ford GT.

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