Over 50 Former Pro Wrestlers Slam WWE With Brain Injury Class Action

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Multiple former professional wrestlers have filed a proposed class action lawsuit against both the World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. and chairman/CEO Vince McMahon, alleging that the WWE concealed the long-term health effects caused by traumatic brain injuries.

More than 50 retired pro wrestlers listed in the the WWE class action lawsuit, including Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka, Chris “King Kong Bundy” Pallies, and Joe “Road Warrior Animal” Laurinaitis, say they sustained long-term neurological injuries during their tenure with WWE.

The WWE class action lawsuit alleges that repeated head injuries caused by “correctly” performed moves led to an ongoing disease process called Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy or CTE.

According to the group of retired wrestlers, the WWE “routinely failed to care for the Named Plaintiffs’ repetitive head injuries during their career in any medically competent or meaningful manner that complied with any known published contact sports return-to-play guidelines at the time the injuries occurred.”

The WWE class action lawsuit also claims that the injuries sustained by wrestlers “involve a neurological disease and ongoing disease process called Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) as well as the effects of Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) that occur as a consequence of repetitive head trauma sustained by the Plaintiffs as professional wrestlers in matches sponsored, controlled and created by WWE.”

They also claim the WWE would routinely “place corporate gain over its wrestlers’ health, safety, and financial security, choosing to leave the plaintiffs severely injured and with no recourse to treat their damaged minds and bodies.”

WWE controlled the lives of wrestlers strictly, including what medical treatment they received, according to the lawsuit. It also classified them as independent contractors and not as employees.

“As a result, plaintiffs completely and reasonably relied on WWE and [McMahon’s] knowledge, information and authority in deciding whether to perform or seek treatment for injuries,” the lawsuit contends.

The WWE lawsuit specifically names wrestling moves like the “piledriver” and “body slam” as the direct causes of the head injuries that some pro wrestlers have sustained over the years.

“The wrestling moves that involve the occupational head trauma that causes CTE and associated diseases from the accumulated effects of [traumatic brain injuries] are the result of wrestling moves and maneuvers that were performed ‘correctly’ by the plaintiffs,” the class action lawsuit says. “In other words, the head trauma that has resulted in injury is the accumulated effect of many impacts to the plaintiffs’ heads that occurred on a regular, routine basis during their WWE career.”

The wrestlers also claim WWE “deliberately ignored and actively concealed … medically important and possibly lifesaving information about specific neurological conditions like CTE that afflict wrestlers and contact sports athletes with similar clinical histories of head trauma.”

The class action lawsuit claims the WWE knows that such conditions can “result in suicide, drug abuse and violent behavior that pose a danger to not only the athletes themselves but also their families and community,” but that company officials did nothing to warn or educate the wrestlers about the risk or to provide them with treatment.

Similar lawsuits have been filed against the NFL and NHL in the past, and a group of three former pro wrestlers filed a lawsuit just like this one against the WWE last year.

Former WWE superstars Evan Singleton and Vito LoGrasso filed a similar putative class action lawsuit in January 2015 in Pennsylvania federal court, but the WWE was granted a motion to transfer the venue to Connecticut, where its headquarters are located.

This class action lawsuit was joined with two other class action lawsuits filed by former pro wrestlers, arguing that when wrestlers sustain injuries during scripted matches, often taking blows to the head and being knocked unconscious, medical experts on the WWE payroll are ordered to minimize the risks associated with repeated head injuries and often look the other way while performers continue to fight.

However, the U.S. District Court of Connecticut dismissed those cases from the combined lawsuit in March and trimmed a portion of Singleton and LoGrasso’s lawsuit down to two claims of fraudulent omission.

The new WWE class action lawsuit brings forth additional claims for OSHA violations as well as violations of the National Labor Relations Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act and workers compensation statutes of various states.

The plaintiffs are represented by Brenden P. Leydo of Tooher Wocl & Leydon LLC, Konstantine W. Kyros and Anthony M. Norris of the Kyros Law Offices, S. James Boumil of Boumil Law Offices, Erica Mirabella of Mirabella Law LLC, and R. Christopher Gilreath of Gilreath & Associates. .

The WWE Brain Injury Class Action Lawsuit is Laurinaitis et al v. World Wrestling Entertainment Inc., et al., Case No. 3:16-cv-01209, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut.