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PWInsider.com has learned of an ongoing civil lawsuit filed by Armando Alejandro Montalvo, the man who was shot and arrested outside the WWE Performance Center in Florida in August 2015 and who WWE subsequently requested and received an order of protection against.
In the lawsuit, filed in May (an Amended complaint was filed last month) before the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida (Orlando Division), Montalvo names World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (WWE), WWE Performance Center Manager David Bailey, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office (OCSO), individual OCSO deputies Cpl. S. Wahl and Deputy D. Richardson, Aspire Health Partners Inc., and Walmart Inc. as co-defendants.
The 11-page filing brings several counts, alleging a coordinated corporate and law enforcement conspiracy involving excessive force, illegal chemical restraint, and pretextual arrests. In the lawsuit, Montalvo is alleging a conspiracy against him, claiming that during the August 31, 2015 incident outside the WWE Performance Center, he was unarmed, intoxicated, and wearing headphones. The filing alleges WWE staff mocked him and bypassed standard 911 dispatch lines to contact off-duty deputies directly. Montalvo alleges an off-duty deputy ambushed and shot him, despite a female WWE employee on the scene verbally acknowledging he did not have a weapon. He further claimed a knife was planted after the shooting to retroactively justify the use of force, though no weapon was ever recovered.
Montalvo is also alleging Aspire Health Partners acted as a state actor under Florida’s Baker Act (Chapter 394) and forcibly administered heavy psychotropic medications ("polypharmacy") to keep him subdued. He alleges this was done in bad faith to render him mentally incapacitated, preventing him from prosecuting a court-approved criminal appeal and violating his constitutional rights through repeated involuntary commitments.
Montalvo also alleges he was targeted at Walmart during a separate June 4, 2020 incident, where he alleges store management at an East Colonial Drive location conspired with arriving deputies to entrap him on false criminal trespass charges. The suit notes that the State Attorney’s Office ultimately dropped all charges.
Montalvo is demanding a trial by jury and requesting compensatory and punitive damages, as well as declaratory relief against all named parties.
In August 2015, Montalvo was arrested for trespassing after being warned to leave WWE property, leading to WWE seeking and receiving an injunction against him in an attempt to keep him from trespassing on the WWE Performance Center property in Orlando, Florida as there had been multiple incidents of Montalvo showing up demanding a job, threatening talent and even throwing and smearing feces on the Performance Center building.
Undeterred, Montalvo returned to the PC on 8/31/15. Video footage that was featured in local media showcased Montalvo acting out as if he was a wrestling performer while banging on the doors and demanding to be trained by the company. When local police showed up, Montalvo engaged them and ended up shot. He was hospitalized and later charged with aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, resisting arrest and trespassing. Montalvo plead not guilty to all charges.
During a Sheriff's media conference following the 2015 incident, Montalvo was described as being "fixated" on a female WWE performer.
Prior to his arrest at the WWE PC, Montalvo had been previously arrested for battery on a person 65 years or older, violating a domestic injunction, fraud, and assault on a law enforcement officer. Montalvo was also arrested in 2017 in Orlando, Florida outside the Independent Bar and charged with battery after he took a vacuum hose and put one end in his pants and the other up a woman’s skirt. He was taken into custody and at the time, it was ruled that the incident resulted in a violation of his previous bond from the Performance Center arrest.
In a February 2017 court hearing, Montalvo's father stated in court that his son suffers from borderline personality disorder and schizophrenia, and without his medication, he tends to have outbursts. Montalvo had claimed in court that he was actually the victim in the situation, since he had been shot by police.
In April 2018, World Wrestling Entertainment filed for and received an order of protection against Montalvo after he took to social media that with what was believed to be a threat against the company, leading to WWE rushing to file for the order against him. The order was later made permanent.
Court records do not indicate any of the defendants in the lawsuit have been served.
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