As we previously reported, former WWE superstar Billy Jack Haynes is suing the company for what he claims is the “egregious mistreatment” of wrestlers. Haynes worked for the company in the late 1980s. He filed the lawsuit on October 23. Now more details of the 30-page lawsuit have been revealed. The lawsuit was designed to be the similar to the class action lawsuit against the NFL by former players.
The lawsuit says that wrestling is a performance and mentions the possibility of injury and death. It cites Owen Hart’s death in 1999 and brings up the injuries that Mick Foley and Candice Michelle have received over the years. It also lists several wrestling moves that can cause injury. It portrays the company as one that ignores injures. It even cites Stephanie McMahon claiming, on record to a Congressional investigation, that WWE never had a documented concussion. The lawsuit also claims that the Wellness Policy was only started after the death of a wrestler (Eddie Guerrero) and a Congressional Investigation. The latter is false as the Policy was established before Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman started looking at wrestling.
It said that due to things like chair shots, wrestlers are at risk of brain damage. It cites the eleven chair shots Mick Foley received at Royal Rumble 1999 against The Rock and uses statements from Stephanie to support it.
Here’s the quote: “For example, if there are a number of guys in the ring, like say there is five guys attacking one guy, and I am a good guy going to come out, if I come out by myself, I am going to get beat down just as bad as the other guy. But if I come out with a chair, I might have a better chance. Logically, so that is how the chairs are used. You might have seen ‐‐ or I don’t know if you have seen any of our scripts ‐‐ but there might be chair shots written in at some point.”
It also tried to connect Lance Cade’s death in 2010 with the fact that Shawn Michaels beat him with a chair in an angle years before. It claims that WWE has made money from the violence of the chair shot with stories on their website. Even though WWE banned chairs to the head, it still uses the image while promoting the WWE Network. It says WWE still encourages talents to perform dangerous stunts in Ladder matches, steel cage matches, Inferno matches, Table Matches and Hell in A Cell. The Punjabi Prison is also mentioned.
The lawsuit also says that several former WWE wrestlers were diagnosed with CTE, including Chris Benoit and Andrew “Test” Martin. Haynes also lists his own personal experiences with WWE. They include:
– He was constantly tired as he worked 27 days a month, which made him more likely to be injured or hurt others.
– He was “”pressured by WWE to wrestle through his injuries, including his head injuries.”
– During his two years with the company, he said he suffered “15 concussions” yet was never told to get the help of a neurologist and had his injures downplayed by staff. He said he was never warned about possible head injuries and if he was, he never would have worked for WWE.
– He said he was “forced to compete in Chain Matches” where the wrestlers were told to use the chain on each other.
– He said he was “forced, and encouraged, to take steroids and other illicit drugs. He did so at the behest of WWE. WWE intimated that he would be fired if he refused. He received steroids, along with various other illicit drugs, directly from WWE-affiliated physicians on a monthly basis. These drugs masked the pain stemming from his WWE matches, and caused him to wrestle through dangerous injuries, including injuries to his head.”
– He claims that he now suffers depression symptoms of dementia.
-Haynes said: “While wrestling for WWE, Haynes, and other wrestlers, also contracted Hepatitis C. This occurred when Haynes, and the other wrestlers, at the behest of WWE, would become covered in each other’s blood during matches.”
He wants a jury trial and is trying to get other wrestlers who worked for WWE to join him. While he claims his injuries happened only during the two-year period he worked for the WWE, he wrestled four years before that and kept wrestling until 1996 (including for WCW).
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