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WWE CONCUSSION LAWSUIT UPDATES [UPDATED]

There was a lot of movement over the last few days regarding the WWE concussion lawsuits.

On 4/20, WWE filed a motion asking the court to force the hand of  Evan Singleton and Vito Lo Grasso in regard to producing responses to requests for material and answers to WWE questions in regard to the case.   WWE alleged in their filing that the pair are withholding documents and medical records, including Lo Grasso (who has alleged he was now partially deaf due to damage he incurred in WWE's ring) not providing records showing he has actually been partially deaf since childhood.    

In their motion, WWE noted that on 3/7, they filed questions related to the case with attorneys for LoGrasso and Singleton and have yet to receive one response.  They also cited that they requested and held a counsel, inviting the six attorneys representing the plaintiffs to get to the bottom of the matter.  One attorney was sent with the understanding that she could make decisions for all and then when presented with the issues, claimed she had to confer with her fellow attorneys before a decision was made.   On 3/21, some material was finally produced and all of it were articles that were publicly available with no confidential items that would show any legitimate responses to questions raised by WWE attorneys.  

WWE even noted that one of the documents filed was an article about March Madness basketball and to date, not one document or medical record regarding LoGrasso and Singleton has been filed.  WWE has also been unable to receive access to their social media accounts, noting that Singleton, while being portrayed as permanently disabled has written about being in "Beast Mode" and training for a bodybuilding competition.

On 4/20, Billy Jack Haynes filed a notice of appeal to having his lawsuit against WWE dismissed.  The filing did not list what grounds the appeal planned to use.

Also on 4/20, Russ McCullough, Ryan Sakoda and Matthew Robert Wiese (professionally known as as Luther Reigns) also filed notice of appeal.

The United States District Court in Connecticut ruled on 4/21 that the attorneys representing Singleton and Lo Grasso could receive an extension until 5/9 in regard to responding to WWE's attempts to get the court to reconsider allowing portions of their case against WWE going forward.  The extension was requested to allow proper time to prepare a response as a personal emergency and another non-related case were going to force them to miss the initial deadline.

In recent weeks, WWE has also filed paperwork seeking the court to reconsider their dismissal of the lawsuit WWE brought against Thomas Billington (Dynamite Kid), Oreal Perras (Ivan Koloff), James (Koko B.) Ware and Robert Windham (the late Blackjack Mulligan).  On 4/5, WWE filed a motion asking the court to reconsider on the grounds that they were never heard on their arguments, had no notice that the court planned to make that ruling, that the defendants never responded to WWE's claims, and that court made a mistake in dismissing the case due to decisions made in the Singleton/Lo Grasso case as the defendants were not party to that action. 

WWE sued the quartet, three of whom are in their WWE Hall of Fame, in response to the same attorney that filed all the other concussion related lawsuits, contacting them and advising WWE that he was now representing them and could be moving forward with similar legal action. WWE is seeking to have the court rule that their claims would be time-barred under Connecticut law, shutting them down before they can pile on with the other lawsuits.  The court ruled on 4/21 that the attorneys representing the quartet have until 5/10 to respond to WWE's filings.

So, that is the latest as to where things stand.

Update 11:51 AM:

In response to our original article, Vito LoGrasso's wife Noel Tweeted the following:

Mrs. Lo Grasso also Tweeted the following:

Mike: To be clear, ALL sourcing for our original article today came from filed documents with the United States District Court of Connecticut, not any party to any of the lawsuits.

Second update 1:40 PM: Since PWInsider.com's update, Mrs. Lo Grasso has made her Tweets private to anyone who doesn't follow her account.

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