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DEEP LOOK AT THE LAWSUITS FILED AGAINST WWE, PROBLEMS WITH THE CLAIMS WITHIN & WHAT SHOULD ACTUALLY COME OUT OF ALL OF THIS

By Mike Johnson on 2015-07-02 11:47:40

The recent lawsuits filed against World Wrestling Entertainment alleging concussion and other medical issues were caused by WWE wrongdoing and specifically by the company's alleged choice to hide the dangers of concussions make for great, juicy news headlines, but as more and more of them are filed, I can't help but feel bad, not just for WWE but for the talents and their families who are involved.

Before I go any further, I want to specify a few points:

 Do I believe that in many of their cases, the wrestlers who filed lawsuits injured themselves for their craft?  Absolutely.  That is the nature of the game.  Do I believe they were misled into this situation?  Of course not.  All it would take for a reasonably logical, thinking person to understand the nature of pro wrestling is that first bump they take in a wrestling ring.  They all fell backwards and felt the shock of their body as it hit the wrestling mat.  At that point, they had one of two choices.  They could think, "I don't want to do this.  This hurts." or they could think, "I want to do this again."  They made the choice.  Vince McMahon did not shove them into a ring and enslave them as if they were circus animals. It was a hard life, to be sure, but a life they themselves chose.

While I have a deep, deep sympathy for those who choose to make these sacrifices and even more for those are suffering today as a result of those choices, at the end of the day, personal responsibility is a big issue in all of this.  All of these individuals were adults who got into professional wrestling for one of a select series of reasons: They wanted to perform or they wanted to make money.  Really, when you boil it down, that's all that is promised to someone when they enter a pro wrestling ring for the first time - the potential to perform and make money.  That's it.  They were all presented with the door to Narnia and chose to walk through and given the exact same chance again, I've no doubt that most, if not all, would make that same choice, because whether they will admit it during litigation or not, that time period was likely the best time period of their lives.

There was absolutely good and bad in that era, but do I believe that WWE forced this upon them?  No.  WWE hired them to do what, in many of their cases, these talents were already doing.  Matt Osbourne had been all over the territory system.  Billy Jack Haynes was as well.  Blackjack Mulligan?  Dynamite Kid? Koko B. Ware?  Hell, even Vito Lograsso was in WCW and ECW and All Japan before he signed with WWE....what do 99% of these men listed as Plaintiffs have in common?  They all wrestled elsewhere before and in most cases, after they were under contract to WWE.   With the exception of Evan Singleton, all of them continued to wrestle after their WWE runs, some of them for many years. 

Therefore, there is no accurate, scientific way for anyone to prove that whatever damage they suffered happened only under WWE's auspices, because from the AWA to the lowest level independent wrestling event held inside a VFW, these men tooks bumps for all sorts of promoters in all sorts of rings in all sorts of venues all over the world. 

 Were these men abused by wrestling promoters?  I am sure that they felt that way, and certainly some feel that way now, but they also chose to abuse their own bodies and the question of where that personal responsibility ends and where the responsibility of the promoters, most of whom are long out of business and many of whom are deceased themselves, begins...well, no one will ever be able to answer that question from a scientific, logical standpoint, because pro wrestling is such a weird, eclectic genre, one that changes with time and is never the same again as it evolves.  What was required of Billy Jack Haynes was nothing similar to what was required of Ryan Sakoda, because wrestling had changed on every level: the training, the touring, the performance, etc.  Five years from now, it might be as completely different from today as it would be from The NWA in the 1970s.

All that said, would I like to personally see WWE create some sort of medical outreach program that can help some of their former contracted talents?  Absolutely, because deep down, there is some sort of responsilibity that WWE should take, just because it's the right thing to do and more than that, it's good public relations.  Whether any of these cases are ever actually argued in court or they are thrown out by the State of Connecticut for being time-barred, there's been enough mainstream articles noting all the things alleged by WWE that it has to be seen as embarassing.  WWE should, as they did by offering rehab to former talents, be pro-active and see what they CAN do to help those who are legitimately suffering, as opposed to those who are trying to fleece one last payday for themselves.

If WWE does do this, then at least something positive can come out of these lawsuits being filed, because in many of the cases, reading them from the perspective of someone who has studied and written about the business for well over a decade has been frustrating - not because they paint WWE as this evil monolith that made it's riches on the blood of it's performers, but because there are families who are relying on their attorneys to represent them and based on the filings, they are being woefully let down.

Many of the filings feature completely incorrect information about the talents and their relationships with WWE.  Take a gander at some of these:

*Matt Osbourne entered pro wrestling in 1985 after being approached by Vince McMahon.  WWE did not provide proper headgear when Osbourne was trained by WWE.  Of course, Osbourne was wrestling for years prior to signing a WWE deal in 1985 and was trained, sans helmet, by his FATHER, a well known wrestler, Tony Borne. 

*The same filing claimed Osbourne was with WWE from 1985 to 2007.  That of course, is absolute bullsh**, which begs one to wonder who exactly Osbourne's family has entrusted and why they can't do a rudimentary google search or Wikipedia check to trace Osbourne's career. 

*The claim that Osbourne's death in 2013 from an accidental drug overdose was WWE's fault when he hadn't been under contract since October 1993...even after they fronted the bill for a rehab stay in an attempt to assist him also seems wrong on so many levels.

*Vito LoGrasso suffered deafness due to head injuries he endured in WWE...except it's been well known forever that LoGrasso dealt with deafness since birth.

*Nelson Frazier suffered from CTE and that caused his heart attack...even though Frazier was never tested for CTE as he was cremated before any such test could be done on his brain.

*The claim Frazier suffered head injuries in every single match he competed in.  I'm not going to say Frazier was never, ever injured or banged up, but anyone with even a slight understanding of pro wrestling can see many of these matches listed were old school WWE TV squash matches where if anyone was getting hurt, it was the enhancement talents and Frazier was likely the one doing the hurting.  By casting such a wide net instead of providing legitimate medical details and facts, they aren't helping Frazier - but they are making whatever potentially legitimate claims the Frazier family may have seem completely ridiculous instead.

*The fact that on at least 4-5 occasions, that plaintiffs in the case have been referred to as deceased when they are actually indeed alive, is mind-blowingly insane, even for a story about professional wrestlers.  As someone who had to sue after nearly dying in a car wreck in 2001, if the lawyer representing me filed that I was dead in court, my reaction would have been to immediately fire them for complete incompetence.  The fact that the same claim was made numerous times about different plaintiffs just makes me shake my head.

Let's call a spade a spade: it really, truly sucks, to read Blackjack Mulligan speaking about his son, Barry Windham and saying, "The lights are on but nobody's home."  I can't begin to tell you how much I loved Barry Windham as a child growing up and followed his adventures and exploits all across professional wrestling.  The idea that this performer I cared so much about, who provided me with so many awesome and dramatic matches, is suffering, breaks my heart on so many levels. 

Something can and should be done to help Windham and others like him, including some of the plaintiffs here, but these lawsuits...the way they are being filed, the way they are presenting facts and the way the entire process has gone....I don't know this is the way to go.  It seems more like a way to cause more strife between former performers and WWE and to set up these talents for a greater disappointment...and in the case of some of these men, the latter part of their lives have already held enough disappointment.

While I have my doubts any of this will lead to anything but an ever-increasingly messy legal nuclear war, I truly hope that some positive comes out of all of this, as opposed to an increasing number of lawsuits with half-truths that paint the wrestlers as liars and paint WWE as evil.  If some does, then there will be truly be a victory - and the type of victory that one should hope...not a financial windfall, but some everlasting change.

What these lawsuits should do is hopefully create the conversation within WWE as to what they CAN do to help some of these talents.  Not everyone is out for a quick payday.  Some are legitimately suffering.  Yes, they made their personal choices to enter the business, but as I mentioned, pro wrestling has evolved many, many times.  Perhaps it's time for WWE, who have already become the de facto protectors and historians of the genre, to evolve yet again and assist those who legitimately could use the help.

Dynamite Kid is in a wheelchair.  Ivan Koloff walks hunched over with a limp that is painful to see as he passes you by.   There are many others like them, some of whom aren't even involved in these legal proceedings.  These are men who in their time, WERE warriors as much as they were performers and who WWE did make money with (as well as for).  They should be celebrated and remembered for what they did yesterday and helped today (if possible), not listed as defendants in a lawsuit.

Mike Johnson can be reached at MikeJohnsonPWInsider@gmail.com

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