More than 50 former wrestlers filed a class action lawsuit against World Wrestling Entertainment on Monday. The complaint alleges that the former wrestlers suffer from long-term brain damage and the development of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, known as CTE, the Alzheimer’s-like neurodegenerative disease associated with repeated hits to the head.
According to the suit “…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 complaint goes on to say that the WWE also failed to provide care for the wrestlers when their injuries occurred and that 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.”
In a statement, the WWE replied that “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.”
Among those suing are WWE Hall of Famers “Mr. Wonderful” Paul Orndorff and “Road Warrior Animal” Joseph Laurinaitis. Former hall of famer Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka, is also listed as a plaintiff. Snuka was ruled mentally incompetent to stand trial on murder and manslaughter charges in the death of his former girlfriend in 1983. Defense attorneys argued Snuka suffered from dementia and that he suffered from concussions during his career.