Several former professional wrestlers who have claimed in lawsuits that World Wrestling Entertainment has failed to protect them from repeated head injuries are taking their case to the United States Supreme Court.
A lawyer for the former fighters filed a request Wednesday night asking the Supreme Court to hear appeals from lower court rulings that dismissed the cases, saying they were opened after the statute of limitations expired. WWE says the lawsuits are without merit and believes the appeals will not be successful.
Plaintiffs include William “Billy Jack” Haynes, Russ “Big Russ” McCullough, Ryan Sakoda, Matthew “Luther Reigns” Wiese and the wife of the late Nelson “Viscera” Frazier, also known as Big Daddy V, who died in 2014.
They were among more than 50 ex-fighters, mostly stars in the 1980s and 1990s, who sued WWE, saying they suffered repeated head injuries, including concussions that led to long-term brain damage. They accused the WWE, based in Stamford, Connecticut, of knowing about the risks of head injuries, but did not alert their fighters. Several of the lawsuits were dismissed by a federal lower court in 2018.
Other fighters who filed for action included Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka, Joseph “Road Warrior Animal” Laurinaitis, Paul “Mr. Wonderful ”Orndorff, Chris“ King Kong Bundy ”Pallies and Harry Masayoshi Fujiwara, known as Mr. Fuji.
Snuka and Fujiwara died in 2017 and 2016, respectively, and were diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, after their deaths, according to their lawyer. Pallies and Laurinaitis died in 2019 and 2020, respectively, of undisclosed causes. Other plaintiffs have dementia and other illnesses, the suit says.
In September, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals of the United States in New York City rejected several of the lawsuits, including some that were said to have been started too late. The court upheld the 2018 decisions of federal judge Vanessa Bryant in Connecticut, who said there was no evidence that the WWE knew that concussions or blows to the head during the fights caused CTE.
Former fighters’ lawyer Konstantine Kyros, based in Hingham, Massachusetts, criticized the decisions and said the ex-fighters were “deprived of their fundamental rights as American citizens, including the right to appeal”.
Kyros said the 2nd Circuit court rejected previous appeals because final decisions were not made in all cases. After Bryant made those final decisions in 2018, Kyros again appealed in several of the lawsuits that are now before the Supreme Court. But he said the 2nd Circuit rejected those appeals, saying they were presented too late according to a new precedent set by the Federal Supreme Court.
Jerry McDevitt, a WWE lawyer, said he did not think the attempt to revive the five fighters’ lawsuits would succeed.
In his 2018 decision, Bryant also criticized Kyros for repeatedly failing to comply with court rules and orders and ordered him to pay WWE legal fees – more than $ 500,000.
Unlike football and hockey, where players have suffered similar injuries, WWE matches involve scripted and choreographed movements by WWE, making the company directly responsible for the fighters’ injuries, the lawsuits claim.
The National Football League and National Hockey League were also sued by former players who suffered concussions and other head injuries. The NFL closed a $ 1 billion deal, while the NHL closed a $ 18.9 million deal.