80s WWE Wrestler Files A Lawsuit

[Jack-Hammer]

According to a report at wrestlinginc.com, former WWE star Billy Jack Haynes is suing WWE in federal court for "egregious mistreatment of wrestlers for its own benefit, as well as concealment and denial of medical research and evidence concerning traumatic brain injuries suffered by WWE wrestlers." The suit is 42 pages in length and Haynes filed it this past Thursday. He's asking the court to grant class-action status to his lawsuit for what his attorney states could be 500 people who suffered injuries while performing in a WWE ring.

Regarding the suit, "Under the guise of providing 'entertainment', WWE has, for decades, subjected its wrestlers to extreme physical brutality that it knew, or should have known, caused long-term irreversible bodily damage, including brain damage. For most of its history, WWE has engaged in a campaign of misinformation and deception to prevent its wrestlers from understanding the true nature and consequences of the injuries they have sustained. WWE's representations, actions and inactions have caused wrestlers to suffer from death, long-term debilitating injuries, lost profits, premature retirement, medical expenses, and other losses alleged herein."

WWE hasn't commented on the suit and a trial date hasn't been set as of yet.

Here's the thing: professional wrestling is a dangerous business that can result in people getting injured, sometimes severely and irreversibly. Anyone that's ever watched pro wrestling for any length of time, has ever wrestled themselves and has any degree of common sense knows this. If a stuntman gets hurt while performing a dangerous stunt in an action film, he can't turn around and decide to sue the movie studio because he was injured performing a task in the profession that he chose for himself. If a football player breaks his neck while his head collides with the padding of another player while he's tackling said player, which has happened I think, then, again, it's a risk that he was willing to take for the profession he chose to pursue.

Now I do agree that, in the past, WWE has turned a blind eye to some of the goings on behind the scenes, the incident with Chris Benoit is the most glaringly obvious one. I'm not excusing WWE for that, they fucked up plain and simple because they didn't care what was going on behind the scenes so long as it didn't interfere with the wrestler's work. To be fair, however, if you blame WWE then you have to blame the ENTIRE professional wrestling industry because it's a very, very safe bet that every remotely relevant professional wrestling promotion to ever start up is guilty of doing the same thing from the biggest of the big to the smallest of the small.

I don't know what sort of evidence Haynes has or thinks that he has, of course, but I honestly fail to see how a wrestler couldn't be fully aware of the risks he was taking. If he allowed himself to get hit in the head with a metal folding chair, allowed himself to be tossed off a 10 foot ladder through stacked wooden tables either in the ring or outside of the ring, leaped over the top rope to land on another wrestler & landed at an awkward angle, allowed himself to take a kick to the face knowing that there might be a chance he'd get hurt, then I honestly don't see how he can claim not to know the potential risks. These are grown men and women who know what they're getting themselves into.

This is an example of WWE's success being a double edged sword because it's the big boy on the block, which means it has the deepest pockets. WWE can get slammed by the media or the courts for something while a hundred other promotions doing the exact same thing slide by completely unnoticed. And, of course, if it's not dismissed and is granted class-action status, then you can just bet that every never-was and nobody who came through the company with an axe to grind may very well try to get in on this.

 

[JBM]

Nobody forced him into this profession. He didn't have to do a single wrestling maneuver in his life. There are literally thousands of other professions he could have chosen. He's looking for a retirement fund...plain and simple.

 

[Rayne]

According to a report at wrestlinginc.com, former WWE star Billy Jack Haynes is suing WWE in federal court for "egregious mistreatment of wrestlers for its own benefit, as well as concealment and denial of medical research and evidence concerning traumatic brain injuries suffered by WWE wrestlers." The suit is 42 pages in length and Haynes filed it this past Thursday. He's asking the court to grant class-action status to his lawsuit for what his attorney states could be 500 people who suffered injuries while performing in a WWE ring.

Regarding the suit, "Under the guise of providing 'entertainment', WWE has, for decades, subjected its wrestlers to extreme physical brutality that it knew, or should have known, caused long-term irreversible bodily damage, including brain damage. For most of its history, WWE has engaged in a campaign of misinformation and deception to prevent its wrestlers from understanding the true nature and consequences of the injuries they have sustained. WWE's representations, actions and inactions have caused wrestlers to suffer from death, long-term debilitating injuries, lost profits, premature retirement, medical expenses, and other losses alleged herein."

WWE hasn't commented on the suit and a trial date hasn't been set as of yet.

Here's the thing: professional wrestling is a dangerous business that can result in people getting injured, sometimes severely and irreversibly. Anyone that's ever watched pro wrestling for any length of time, has ever wrestled themselves and has any degree of common sense knows this. If a stuntman gets hurt while performing a dangerous stunt in an action film, he can't turn around and decide to sue the movie studio because he was injured performing a task in the profession that he chose for himself. If a football player breaks his neck while his head collides with the padding of another player while he's tackling said player, which has happened I think, then, again, it's a risk that he was willing to take for the profession he chose to pursue.

Now I do agree that, in the past, WWE has turned a blind eye to some of the goings on behind the scenes, the incident with Chris Benoit is the most glaringly obvious one. I'm not excusing WWE for that, they fucked up plain and simple because they didn't care what was going on behind the scenes so long as it didn't interfere with the wrestler's work. To be fair, however, if you blame WWE then you have to blame the ENTIRE professional wrestling industry because it's a very, very safe bet that every remotely relevant professional wrestling promotion to ever start up is guilty of doing the same thing from the biggest of the big to the smallest of the small.

I don't know what sort of evidence Haynes has or thinks that he has, of course, but I honestly fail to see how a wrestler couldn't be fully aware of the risks he was taking. If he allowed himself to get hit in the head with a metal folding chair, allowed himself to be tossed off a 10 foot ladder through stacked wooden tables either in the ring or outside of the ring, leaped over the top rope to land on another wrestler & landed at an awkward angle, allowed himself to take a kick to the face knowing that there might be a chance he'd get hurt, then I honestly don't see how he can claim not to know the potential risks. These are grown men and women who know what they're getting themselves into.

This is an example of WWE's success being a double edged sword because it's the big boy on the block, which means it has the deepest pockets. WWE can get slammed by the media or the courts for something while a hundred other promotions doing the exact same thing slide by completely unnoticed. And, of course, if it's not dismissed and is granted class-action status, then you can just bet that every never-was and nobody who came through the company with an axe to grind may very well try to get in on this.

I think this guy stands a pretty good chance of winning this suit. There's now precedence with the NFL's recent concussion litigation. I'm unsure as to whether that all ended with the NFL agreeing to a massive settlement under which they admitted no liability, or if it went all the way through the legal system (and that will matter), but another organization with much the same risks has now gone through exactly the same situation.

It doesn't have to be proven that Haynes knew he was likely to get injured. What has to be shown is that there is a preponderance of the evidence that the WWE knew about the long-term risks of the injuries that their performers faced, and withheld some or all of that information with their performers. (For the uninitiated, 'preponderance of the evidence' is a legal term which means that it is more likely than not that the allegations within the suit are true, which is the standard in American civil litigation. It is different than the criminal standard of 'beyond a reasonable doubt'.) Having sat on a couple of civil juries, it's not really that hard to convince 10 out of 12 people of a 51% threshold.

It's entirely irrelevant that he could have chosen some other profession like accounting or teaching. What's relevant to this case is that if in his chosen profession, his employer more likely than not knew about the allegations in this civil suit, and chose to conceal them from their performers. The WWE's in a no-win situation here; if they opt for a settlement out of court, while they'll admit no wrongdoing, they'll have to cash out for Haynes, and it would be likely that they'd have to set up a fund for other performers as part of the settlement- on top of the risk of inviting further litigation from other performers. If they contest the case and lose, fuck, they're going to get taken to the cleaners. The only way they get out of this unscathed is if they contest the case and win, either via trial or dismissal, and I think that's going to be a pretty tough sell.

The WWE has deep pockets for a professional wrestling organization, but not NFL-sized pockets. This could be a very, very bad thing for the WWE.

 

[closet_fan]

I think this guy stands a pretty good chance of winning this suit. There's now precedence with the NFL's recent concussion litigation. I'm unsure as to whether that all ended with the NFL agreeing to a massive settlement under which they admitted no liability, or if it went all the way through the legal system (and that will matter), but another organization with much the same risks has now gone through exactly the same situation.

That's because the NFL has a players union. Wrestlers past and present are considered contracted workers. He won't win based on the agreement the NFL and NFLPA made in the recent collective bargaining agreement.

 

[Rayne]

That's because the NFL has a players union. Wrestlers past and present are considered contracted workers. He won't win based on the agreement the NFL and NFLPA made in the recent collective bargaining agreement.

He won't win a suit on that individual basis, no- however, whether employees are unionized, non-unionized, or independent contractors would be immaterial if it is found that the WWE more likely than not knew about the long-term risks alleged in the suit.

Think of it like hiring a roofer, and not telling him that the roof is completely rotted out before he begins work. If he falls through into the attic and seriously injures himself, you're still liable for withholding that information from him.

 

[FlairFan2003]

Nobody forced him into this profession. He didn't have to do a single wrestling maneuver in his life. There are literally thousands of other professions he could have chosen. He's looking for a retirement fund...plain and simple.

This is the most stupid argument Ive ever heard, and it's parroted constantly. So Haynes chose to be a wrestler ...OK. So in your argument that makes it OK for WWE to lie to him and deceive him about the short & long term impact of injuries for their own profit.

So I chose to be a bartender. Does that mean it's OK for my employer to lie to me about safety procedures that are supposed to be in place when I work late to protect me from robbery & assault, lying for their own profit ? I guess in your world it does.

I also guess in your world that you think it's OK if a convenience store clerk is raped and killed, afterall, she chose to be a store clerk, and if her employer knew the store was in a dangerous area and took no safety precausions (or worse yet, lied and said they did, deceiving the clerk) then I guess by your standard that is OK.

So, exactly where do you draw the line and say it's NOT OK for your employer to intentionally lie & deceive you, risking your well being in the process, simply for their own profit ?

Now Haynes suit may not have merit. I have no way of knowing if WWE had any of the medical research the NFL allegedly had that indicated the possible long term effects of concussions and head traumas that they allegedly ignored and tried to keep from the players. And in all honesty, anyone who remembers 80s wrestling knows that WWE matches were by far the weakest matches staged in the US, you would have a hard time finding one hard, physical, dangerous WWE match for every 20 such matches staged in the NWA, World Class, or AWA during this time. WWE was a cartoon, a pre teen friendly kids show where the matches rarely used objects such as chairs, tables, etc, the cage matches were a joke compared to the Hell In A Cell type bouts being staged in the NWA, and the falls were incredibly weak compared to matches staged in other companies. That said, if WWE had evidence indicating the possible damage head trauma, etc could cause and they concealed it and took no preventive measures simply to make money at the expense of the physical lives of their employees then that is sick and if it can proven they should pay.

So tell me again, where do you draw the line on horrible things happening to employees due to employer negligence before you actually think the employer should be responsible, because in your post it seems like employees can get out right killed on the job and you don't hold anyone responsible.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

The issue here is WHO is making the suit...

Billy Jack Haynes has "form", he is one of the guys who famously appeared on the "Sex Scandal Expose" in the early 1990's. So straight away WWE have a defence with him that he "has a grudge", which could affect whether the suit is considered to have merit.

However, he clearly knows this and it's why he's applying for "class action" with it, so then anyone else who has concussion damage can get in on it and he is pretty much betting someone bigger in the biz with name value will. Of course many who have famously ended their careers from concussions are on good terms with WWE... Bret Hard, Chris Nowinski...they're unlikely to want to get involved. But it only takes a few other disgruntled ex-stars to get in on the act or the families of someone like Benoit, Nancy or even guys like Kanyon and WWE could quickly have a problem on their hands.

It's impossible to predict until the case comes up in front of a court... WWE will aggressively fight the class action portion and try and discredit Haynes as a "hostile witness", they did the same when Raven brought suit against them.

The worst case for WWE would be losing the case, but it's a payout and fund, it wouldn't be worse than the NFL... but perhaps more damaging is if it once again raises the dreaded (by Vince) spectre of union again...or SAG or the Stuntmen's unions start sniffing around as to why Wrestlers don't have to be members when they are in effect actors competing with their actors and stuntmen, especially with more being invovled in movies. Vince hates the idea of union or regulation by union... he'll fight that more than the concussion issue itself and you may see payouts to make it go away rather than that discussion being raised in court.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

This is the most stupid argument Ive ever heard, and it's parroted constantly. So Haynes chose to be a wrestler ...OK. So in your argument that makes it OK for WWE to lie to him and deceive him about the short & long term impact of injuries for their own profit.

But see that's part of the point I was making earlier. How exactly did WWE deceive him? You let yourself get hit in the head with chairs, common sense tells you that there's a possibility of you sustaining an injury. You put yourself through the wear & tear of pro wrestling, common sense is going to tell you there's a very, very good chance your body's gonna wear out. No doctor, certainly no wrestling promoter, could set Haynes down and tell him, "Okay kid, by 2013, you're gonna have kidney and liver issues brought about by a combination of the wear & tear of the road and years of using drugs during the 1980s."

Haynes has claimed to be suffering depression and showing signs of dementia brought about by working for the WWE. Considering that Haynes worked in Stampede Wrestling, Championship Wrestling from Florida & Pacific Northwest Wrestling from the early to mid 80s, the WWE from 1986-1988, the indie scene in Oregon afterward, then Herb Abrams UWF, then a brief stint in WCW before finishing up his career in the USWA, how exactly does Haynes know when the set of shots that eventually led to these alleged traumas took place? He's also claiming to have suffered "at least 15 concussions" and "numerous other injuries" in the 2 years he wrestled for them.

Haynes did an interview with The Oregonian newspaper in which he admitted to using steroids and other drugs during the 80s. An excerpt from that interview reads: "Haynes said a scare in 1987 made him "come clean"' even from pain pills. 'My gym in Oregon City had been open a month, and I had two broken fingers, but Vince wouldn't give me time off.' He was taking powerful pain pills to combat the pain when he suffered a violent reaction while on an airplane flight from Detroit to Miami. 'They made an emergency stop in Charlotte, N.C., and I woke up in a hospital,'' he said. "It all pertained to the codeine I was taking. I have been clean since. I don't even drink.' Haynes said he has been deeply depressed since an ill-fated venture as a promoter and gym owner in 1988 bankrupted him. 'I lost everything - my family, my house, everything. I hit the very bottom.'

Also, based simply on stuff I've heard/read, Haynes himself is no angel as THTRobtaylor mentioned. I don't know if this is true or not, but I've heard stories alleging that Haynes said that Vince McMahon was to blame for the Chris Benoit incident because Benoit discovered that Vince was the biological father of Daniel Benoit and that it set Benoit off.

New info released says that the goal of the suit is for WWE to be forced to create a "trust fund, in an amount to be determined, to pay for the medical monitoring of all wrestlers subjected to checks and hits, as frequently as determined to be medically necessary, as well as to pay to develop and research other methods by which the risk of those affected can be reduced.”

The more I read over all this, the more Haynes comes off, to me at least, as someone that's bitter about how his life turned out and wants someone to blame. If the stories about him accusing Vince of causing Chris Benoit to go off and kill his wife & son before killing himself, it only reinforces that image.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

The issue is that Vince is on record, publicly lying... From Montreal to Kayfabe to how much a talent weighs... the entire business of that time and even today is still based on an element of "working the talent and particularly the public."

The argument isn't perhaps that Billy Jack "chose the biz" and knew the risks but that he should have and DID know that a major part of the business was that promoters worked the boys, the boys and the promoter work the marks and EVERYONE worked those outside the biz to protect it. That is gonna be hard for him to prove as being "forced to by Vince" as whoever broke him into the business would have lied to him at the start, tested him, all the "old school" stuff. It's kinda like suing after winning your WWE contract today and then suing cos they tell you it's pre-determined...it's kinda implied if not a given that once you work there, YOU KNOW that the truth is a rare commodity and not valued above the business itself. That itself hasn't actually been tested in law yet... so this could get interesting, between this and the SEC stuff.

 

[JoeyJoeJoe]

From this article: http://portlandtribune.com/pt/9-news/238233-104497-billy-jack-haynes-wrestles-wwe-into-federal-court

During that time, Haynes claimed he wrestled for several days at a time, with little time off and no off-season. He had at least 15 concussions, and numerous other injuries, using drugs to handle the pain. He also contracted Hepatitis C from blows to the head from chairs, chains and other weapons, Haynes said.

This is the part of the suit that I think would have the most legs. It's the part that exposes them to the most damage from wrestlers who died due to / or reasons exacerbated by excessive drug use such as Curt Hennig, Andrew "Test" Martin, and Eddie Guerrero.

 

[Navi]

It would be interesting to see if he files suit with any other wrestling companies, that are still around, using the same complaint. I'm assuming that most of them don't exist anymore, or have very little cash, and as the WWE has the deepest pockets that's who he's going after.

I read the the article and he wrestled for more than a decade, and only two years with the WWE. And I think it's fair to say that the other companies he wrestled for asked him to do the same things McMahon asked. I also think that when it comes to on site medical treatment, the WWE is miles ahead of any of them.

Feel sorry for the guy, and no one should have to basically cripple themselves physically to make a living. At the same time there are risks associated with this kind of business, and no one should have to sit down and tell you what they are, they can be seen for themselves. I'm not a wrestler, but even I know that doing what they do, can injure, cripple or even kill you, if something goes wrong. You have to take some responsibility for deciding that this is the line of work for you.

 

[Mustang Sally]

I don't know what sort of evidence Haynes has or thinks that he has, of course, but I honestly fail to see how a wrestler couldn't be fully aware of the risks he was taking.

This is the age-old problem stemming from trying to reconcile today's beliefs and practices with those of yesterday. ("Well, if they didn't know....they should have!") As I see it, particularly as it pertains to football, the players involved in these charges seem to be telling us they "didn't know" about the dangers because WWE wasn't telling them or was looking to cover up.

The seeming interpretation is that the wrestlers did know and chose to compete anyway because they either feared losing their jobs or decided unilaterally they could do what needed to be done in the ring and suffer no long-term damage. In other words, perhaps WWE chose to turn a blind eye toward the dangers, but the wrestlers were complicit in this.

Yes, if the employer saw medical evidence that a guy had suffered serious damage from an injury, yet chose to tell him: "It's nothing. Don't be a wimp. Go back to work"......yes, that's horrible, but I question whether it actually went down that way.....and if it did, I don't know how the plaintiffs in the class action suit would prove it.

Still, in today's legal climate in which old-time players in team sports successfully sue for things done in the past, maybe 'ol Billy Jack has something that will stick.

 

[scomvp316]

It seems BJH is trying to get a similar deal that NFL/NFLPA had off of sustained injuries
The dumbest thing is that court rulings dealing with similar matters states that as much as 20-30 years ago the employer should of known then of what medical technology has discovered recently
First of all concussions weren't routinely discussed in the medical field until the late 90's as far as athletes are concerned
There is alot of politics involved with these type of rulings like the 99 vs 1 % argument
Secondly the wrestlers don't fall under any by laws of any athletic commission unless that state has a no blading rule but that is seperate from the athletic commission If this was the case alot of wrestling shows would be cancelled because of the widespread HGH use
In the end depending on what judge gets the case and assuming BJH will be the only plaintiff he won't get a dime but some sort of medical fund will be created but unlike sports leagues WWE can schedule medical tests when they deem fit

 

[Scrotie McBoogerballs]

He had a long wrestling career, but only worked in WWF for 2 years. How can he possibly prove WWF /E is to blame for all his problems? A waste of paper this lawsuit is.