By Michael S. Carroll, PhD & Andrew L. Goldsmith, PhD
In July of 2016, over 50 former wrestlers filed a class action lawsuit against World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (WWE), alleging that the organization concealed the dangers of repetitive head trauma and injuries, leading to debilitating neurological damage. This lawsuit is the latest of a number of legal actions filed against the sports entertainment organization in the past two years with respect to traumatic brain injury and head trauma. The WWE is a sports entertainment organization providing semi-scripted professional wrestling matches involving highly-trained athletes (WWE superstars) to millions of fans across the country and world. Since 1952, the WWE has remained the dominant professional sports entertainment organization in the US. WWE superstars compete throughout the year in a variety of primetime television shows and pay per view-esque events. Like many forms of contact sport, professional wrestling necessarily involves a high degree of physical contact, and violence and aggression are not only part of the action itself but also of the various personas of individual superstars and their respective storylines.
Filed in the US District Court in Connecticut, where the WWE is headquartered, the suit includes many of the same claims listed in previous suits involving the WWE and traumatic brain injury. At its heart, the suit makes two core allegations. First, that the plaintiffs in the case suffered Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) as well as the effects of Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) due to repetitive head trauma sustained during their tenure as professional wrestlers in matches sponsored, controlled, and created by WWE, and that the WWE was negligent in failing to care for plaintiffs’ head injuries during their career in any medically competent or meaningful manner, thus leading to extensive neurological damage. The suit alleges that “while the WWE knew for decades of the harmful effects of sub-concussive and concussive injuries on a wrestler’s brain, it actively concealed these facts from trainers, wrestlers, and the public.” Second, that the WWE fraudulently misrepresented and concealed from the plaintiffs the nature and extent of the long-term neurological injuries suffered by plaintiffs throughout their WWE careers. The suit cited the prevalence of knowledge linking CTE and TBI to long-term neurological issues in contact sports athletes in other forms of sport, such as professional football, and how the WWE nonetheless failed to warn or take any steps to help retired wrestlers with head injury issues, despite the fact that head injuries and TBI remain a regular occurrence in professional wrestling. While the WWE does employ ringside and in-house doctors, the suit alleges that the WWE used these doctors to downplay injuries, encourage dangerous return to play guidelines, and prescribe pain medication. WWE wrestlers subsequently relied upon this misinformation to their detriment. As such, the WWE “placed 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.”
The suit makes note of WWE’s knowledge that wrestlers were at great risk of CTE and all the harmful effects that can follow such a condition, such as suicide, drug abuse, and violent behavior, representing a danger to not only the wrestlers themselves but also their families and community. Of note, issues concerning alcohol and drug abuse by wrestlers (both former as well as current) have abounded in the WWE for years, although the WWE has made strides in this area, creating the WWE Talent Wellness Program in 2006. To further support the contention, the suit specifically mentions Chris Benoit, a former WWE wrestler who murdered his family and killed himself in 2007. Benoit’s brain was determined to have CTE and an advanced form of dementia, resembling that of an 85-year-old Alzheimer’s patient. Additionally, the suit lists as one of the named plaintiffs Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka, who wrestled in the WWE for approximately seven years. Snuka claims that he sustained neurological problems due to repeated concussions form his time wrestling in the WWE and that he still suffers from dizziness, chronic headaches, depression, memory loss, and other cognitive difficulties. Snuka was arrested in 2015 for the 1983 death of his then girlfriend, but he has since been ruled not mentally competent to stand trial, as he suffers from dementia so severe that he does not even know that he has been charged with homicide. It should be noted that Snuka still actively wrestlers for different organizations across the United States.
The suit also discusses how the WWE and Chairperson Vince McMahon exercised near total control over plaintiffs, creating and promoting their gimmicks and storylines, scripting performances, and as such the wrestlers reasonably relied upon the WWE and McMahon for information and authority with respect to medical treatment for injuries. The suit cites the fact that WWE wrestlers are classified as independent contractors, as opposed to employees, a key distinction between professional wrestlers and professional athletes in other professional sport leagues, such as the NFL and NHL, both of which have faced concussion-related lawsuits. This designation, in theory, encourages wrestlers to remain silent when injured and return to the ring quickly for financial security. The suit argues that the degree of control over wrestlers is such that WWE wrestlers should in fact be designated as employees, as opposed to independent contractors. Furthermore, it is alleged that the employment contracts that wrestlers are forced to sign are unconscionable and contracts of adhesion intended to solely benefit the WWE and McMahon and allow the WWE to skirt federal law designed to protect employees, such as OSHA, FMLA, and the NFR Act. The suit is seeking declaratory relief against the WWE, the grant of an injunction and/or equitable relief against the WWE for medical monitoring, compensatory and punitive damages for plaintiffs and plaintiffs’ spouses, economic and consequential damages, interest costs, attorneys’ fees, and any further relief that may be appropriate.
In a prepared statement, the WWE responded to the lawsuit stating:
This is another ridiculous attempt by the same attorney who has previously filed class-action lawsuits against WWE, both of which have been dismissed. A federal judge has already found that this lawyer made patently false allegations about WWE, and this is more of the same. We’re confident this lawsuit will suffer the same fate as his prior attempts and be dismissed.
The lead attorney on the case, Konstantine Kyros, responded that the WWE customarily denigrates the motives and integrity of those willing to challenge WWE’s “self-serving choice to ignore the human toll and health crisis that its policies, fraud, and mistreatment of its workers have created.” The WWE further denies concealing medical information related to concussions and TBI from wrestlers and claims that the organization has remained proactive at implementing concussion management procedures. Of note, some of the included plaintiffs had short tenures in the WWE and spent the bulk of their wrestling careers in other organizations, such as WCW and ECW, both of which now fall under the WWE banner.
Michael S. Carroll is an Associate Professor of Sport Management at Troy University specializing in research related to sport law and risk management in sport and recreation.
Andrew L. Goldsmith is an Assistant Professor of Sport Management at Kutztown University specializing in research related to organizational behavior and ethical decision-making in sport and recreation.
