WWE Gets Several Concussion Lawsuits Dismissed

WWE is out of the woods on most of the concussion lawsuits filed against them over the past couple of years. PWInsider reports that the lawsuits filed by Billy Jack Haynes and the trio of Russ McCullough, Ryan Sakoda and Robert Wiese (Luther Reigns) were dismissed yesterday, while several of the claims made against the company by Vito LoGrasso and Evan Singleton were also dismissed, though portions of their lawsuits are moving forward.

The judge in the cases, Vanessa L. Bryant, noted in her ruling that there were many contradictory statements made by the plaintiffs in their lawsuits against WWE, noting that in respect to the claim that they were never properly about the dangers of head trauma and concussive blows, “Beyond that sole allegation, the Complaints devote large portions of their overall length alleging various injuries and slights sustained by WWE wrestlers other than the named plaintiffs. In fact, despite the length of the Complaints, the Court’s prior admonishment of plaintiffs’ counsel and the Court’s provision of additional time to file a Second Amended Complaint in the Singleton action, there are precious few allegations which detail specific instances of conduct that have wronged any of the five plaintiffs. The Complaints are replete with theoretical allegations of conditions from which a hypothetical person could suffer without alleging that any particular Plaintiff actually suffers from such a condition which has been causally connected by an expert to such Plaintiff’s performance at WWE events.”

Bryant added that there were allegations in the suits about Bill DeMott’s treatment of several wrestlers, but that the allegations were not suffered by the plaintiffs. She said the filings seemed to be targeted at “an audience other than this court” and that many of the other claims were vague and not supported by timelines, such as one that says the WWE Wellness Policy was created to “deceive Plaintiffs by providing a false sense of security and assurance that their health and safety were being adequately monitored.” The Wellness Policy was created in 2007 after all the talent had retired.
In addition, it was noted that some of the filings were simply cut and pasted from one to another; in one case McCullough’s claim lifted a passage about Vito LoGrasso sustaining “repeated concussions day after day over many years” without changing LoGrasso’s name to McCullough’s.

The three completely-dismissed lawsuits were done so as Haynes, McCullough, Sakoda and Wiese was unable to prove that WWE was responsible for any of the claims made against them under Connecticut law, or that WWE purposely made false claims. LoGrasso and Singleton lost the majority of their claims but several were allowed to move forward as it alleged that in 2005, WWE “became aware of and failed to disclose to its wrestlers information concerning a link between repeated head trauma and permanent degenerative neurological conditions.”

WWE’s preemptive lawsuits against Koko B. Ware, Blackjack Mulligan, Ivan Koloff and The Dynamite Kid after being contacted via letter about potential suits were also dismissed. WWE has motions to dismisss suits from estates of Nelson Frazier Jr. and Matt Osbourne still pending.

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