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A hearing has been set regarding the sanctions Vince McMahon and WWE requested the United States District Court of Connecticut take against attorneys Konstantine Kyros, Brenden Leydon, S. James Boumil, Anthony Norris, Erica C. Mirabella, and R. Christopher Gilreath has been set for 3/2 in Hartford, CT at 10:30 AM before Judge Robert A. Richardson
Back in November 2016, WWE claimed that the attorneys had plagiarized some of the allegations against the company from a NFL-concussion lawsuit, that the most recently amended complaint against the company includes facts that have already been proven false over the course of discovery, that the complaint falsely claimed that WWE was aware of the effects of concussion-related disease such as CTE for decades, that WWE and Dr. Joseph Maroon (who oversees the Wellness Policy) have shot down claim and studies that several football players have been diagnosed with CTE, that WWE requested to examine the results and research on Chris Benoit's brain, that WWE hid their knowledge of the dangers of CTE and other concussive effects from their performers, and dozens of other points that WWE took issue with, ranging from how pro wrestling was presented and scripted to how long Maroon had been working with the company.
The motion to dismiss filed back on 12/23/16 by WWE noted that the Amended complaint from November filed against the company alleged, incorrectly, that "all of the deceased wrestlers who have been studied to date had CTE" and that "several hundred wrestlers died from Alzheimer’s or dementia related injuries" according to the Cauliflower Alley Club's website and "that WWE knew that wrestlers received repetitive head trauma that dramatically increased their risks of developing neurological disorders because of its relationship to the CAC."
In related news, a hearing on 1/24 ordered that WWE's attempts to stop discovery in the class action lawsuit brought against the company by dozens of wrestlers, some whom were contracted by WWF/WWE and some who worked on a per match basis be denied as the plaintiffs were not yet suing WWE when discovery was halted on existing, related cases, based on the idea that the new plaintiffs could not have had time to have had their charges heard. A report has to be filed with the court by 2/1.
WWE filed motions on 1/27 attempting to fight requests to unseal depositions Vince McMahon, Paul "Triple H" Levesque and Stephanie McMahon-Levesque gave in relation to the lawsuit. WWE argued that the request is premature in that the depositions have yet to be sealed, that a standing protective order prevents material that WWE feels is “proprietary business information", that the plaintiffs raised no issue with the material being classified as such when the depositions were taken and that federal laws prohibit the filing of the entire deposition on the record and that there is no legitmate basis to unseal and file the entire deposition.
WWE's filing noted, "Plaintiffs’ call for public dissemination of the confidential deposition testimony of WWE’s highest-ranking executives is their latest action in a protracted and abusive litigation campaign against Defendants. This Court has already repeatedly admonished Attorney Kyros for misrepresenting testimony and evidence in this case and for taking actions that are intended to generate negative publicity against Defendants. Such misconduct on the part of Attorney Kyros raises serious concerns about the potential misuse of the confidential deposition transcripts if the Court were to order them to be made public."
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