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My name is Mark de Gruchy. I am a graphic designer and a wrestling enthusiast.
I met Cody Rhodes at AEW’s SuperFight 2022 in Charlotte NC. I told him it was good to meet him and that I had created a design for him that was currently for sale in his ProWrestlingTees store. (Note for clarification: that design was paid for in full by AEW.) He told me he loved that design and wanted to know if I could put together some designs for him for Mania Weekend. He expressed great job in "being apart of the process." He provided a phone number as a means for communication.
That evening he called me while at dinner to discuss starting the project and mentioned being in hurry due to "Mania weekend approaching" and wanted to make sure he was good with his merch. We picked a day to have the work completed by and the work was both completed and turned in by then.
We communicated through text messages and 2 other phone calls. I would talk via text, he would reply via voice mails sent at text.
He had agreed to pay for the work via one of these voice messages. In the same voice message he said that his wife had access to all of his socialsand he would need to get her to send it.
He had asked that I send the files to a printer so that the work can get done since he was in a hurry, which I did.
I wrote him over the course of 4 weeks in the hopes of obtaining the agreed upon money for the work. He communicated back once stating it was his birthday and he would do it later. I wrote again and never heard back.
I have included photos of sections of the conversation which I highlight the aforementioned information.
I hope this post might be both a resolve to this situation and can help others avoid similar situations. I enjoy making art for people and subsequently, I enjoy the time that I spent in it's creation but more importantly, I would like to be compensated through the agreed upon parameters for my work especially if one seeks to profit off of my work.
