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Professional wrestler Chris "Dickinson" Torre filed a lawsuit on 7/22 against former girlfriends Christina Kardooni (who wrestles as Christina Von Eerie) and McKaila Coulter before the United States District Court of New Jersey, seeking damages due to their alleged "blatant acts of defamation that wrongfully accuse Mr. Torre of abusive conduct."
In the lawsuit, Torre stated that he had relationships with Kardooni and Coulter at different times that ran their course. He alleges that he maintained "friendly" communications with each until they began disparaging him on social media after it became publicly known he had signed a contract with New Japan Pro Wrestling.
As noted previously, Kardooni posted allegations against Torre online this past April, alleging abusive behavior on his part during their relationship. Coulter later responded with her own allegations against Torre. While PWInsider.com does not traditionally identify alleged victims of accused abusive and/or criminal behavior, in this case, Kardooni and Coulter chose to publicly identify themselves and the lawsuit specifically reprints their public statements.
Torre quickly denied the allegations:
— Chris Dickinson - ?????????? (@DirtyDickinson) April 30, 2022
Torre's lawsuit notes that:
"In both her Twitter post and Facebook posts, Ms. Kardooni made several untrue and defamatory statements about Mr. Torre.
Specifically, Ms. Kardooni brazenly accused Mr. Torre as an “abuser.” Ms. Kardooni alleged that Mr. Torre inflicted “verbal, mental, and physical abuse” during their relationship. Ms. Kardooni also alleged that Mr. Torre expressed disrespect to her personally, to her career as a female professional wrestler, and to women wrestling in general.
Along with her accusations, Ms. Kardooni attributed several statements to Mr. Torre, all of which are of a vulgar and hostile nature, including but not limited to:
a. “Women’s wrestling is trash.”
b. “You’re all a bunch of whores.”
c. “I can’t believe you’re getting paid that much, it makes me sick. You don’t deserve that.”
d. “You’re a sh*t stain on the wrestling business.”
e. “I hate Christina Von Eerie, and I wish she didn’t exist.”
Ms. Kardooni also falsely alleged that Mr. Torre was physically aggressive towards her and even physically assaulted her. Specifically, Ms. Kardooni posted about Mr. Torre: The verbal fights just kept escalating to the point that he was screaming at me, nose to nose. Veins popping out of a bright red face. He always tried to intimidate me. Puffing up and getting in my face, cornering me. Things started getting physical. He would push me, hold me down, block me from getting to the door, or even pulling me off the door and throwing me on the bed or the floor. He would throw and break things. He didn’t care what it was. . . . These fights continued…yelling, pushing, holding me down, and being tossed around. It was impossible to get him off of me if he was holding me down. He was so much bigger and stronger than me. I felt so helpless sometimes, and scared that things would get more violent…and they did."
In his lawsuit, Torre noted that Kardooni specifically tagged Dave Marquez of the United Wrestling Network and Rocky Romero of New Japan Pro Wrestling on Twitter to make them aware of her allegations when they "could assert impact on his career." Torre, as Chris Dickinson, at the time of the statements was Marquez's UWN Champion. He soon lost the title and has not yet returned to the California-based promotion. Torre specifically cites in the lawsuit, as noted below, that the allegations have turned his New Japan contract into a "valueless deal" as he was being paid per appearance and is no longer being booked by the promotion. He states in the lawsuit Romero had been booking him for NJPW (but is no longer doing so) and that Romero was intimately involved with Torre getting his NJPW contract.
Torre's lawsuit also states that Kardooni tagged his social media accounts and used his professional wrestling ring name of "Chris Dickinson" in the posts to insure that any reader could connect her statements to Torre's professional accounts as a wrestler.
The lawsuit notes, "Ms. Kardooni’s alarming yet false statements wrongfully depict Mr. Torre as a man of violence, while none of her alleged events ever occurred. The reality is that Mr. Torre never engaged in any forms of abuse, whether physical, verbal, or mental, either against any person. Mr. Torre also displays full respect for other women wrestlers, which is well acknowledged in the industry."
In regard to Coulter's allegations, Torre's lawsuit claims that:
"Ms. Coulter made allegations that charged Mr. Torre with “stalking” and “abusive” behavior. For example, Ms. Coulter alleged that Mr. Torre “was following [her] on a secret account” after the two broke up. She also stated that Mr. Torre committed physical violence against her, such as “pushing [her] into the wall” or “throwing a water bottle at [her].” Ms. Coulter also alleged that Mr. Torre conducted “mental abuse” without providing any basis for such statements. Ms. Coulter further implicated that Mr. Torre engaged in extortionate behavior involving so-called revenge porn: “I know he has a file of any girl he’s been involved with that has ‘photos’ to use against them.
Last but not least, Ms. Coulter falsely claimed that “there are other victims out there” who were hurt by Mr. Torre’s alleged wrongful conduct, suggesting that Mr. Torre is a routine abuser who has hurt multiple people.
Though not mentioning Mr. Torre’s name, Ms. Coulter referenced to Ms. Kardooni’s social media posts and referred to herself as another “former partner” to Mr. Torre. Ms. Coulter also made several references to the wrestling industry and Mr. Torre’s “wrestling persona” in her Twitter post, which further indicates that her statements concern Mr. Torre but no other person.
Ms. Coulter’s statements contradict the reality, because Mr. Torre never engaged in any forms of abuse, whether physical, verbal, or mental, either against any person."
All of the allegations levied against Torre by Kardooni and Coulter remain online, leading Torre to allege in the lawsuit that he "has suffered great reputational, professional, and financial damages within the State of New Jersey."
Those damages include, according to the lawsuit, being terminated by Game Changer Wrestling as Torres alleges, " In May 2022, after learning of Defendants’ social media posts and the untrue statements contained therein, GCW terminated its business relationship with Mr. Torre upon an abrupt notice, without any investigation into Defendants’ statements. Mr. Torre was asked to quit his scheduled events with GCW, and was then informed that GCW would stop enlisting him for events indefinitely."
After losing his GCW bookings, Torre claimed, "other wrestling promotions that had commitments with Mr. Torre proceeded to terminate their business relationships with Mr. Torre as well. After Mr. Torre finished all of his then-existing commitments, Mr. Torre was given no further dates to work or to participate in any future matches or events."
On the New Japan Pro Wrestling front, Torre, who had just signed a contract with the company, alleged, "Specifically, when NJPW contracted with Mr. Torre in April 2022, NJPW expressed the interest of booking Mr. Torre for events in Japan and having Mr. Torre work in Japan as soon as possible. After Defendants posted their defamatory statements, NJPW told Mr. Torre to wait until further notice. Given that Mr. Torre’s contract with NJPW was to be paid per appearance in events, losing the opportunities to participate in future NJPW events caused Mr. Torre’s contract with NJPW to become essentially a valueless deal."
Torre also alleged that since the statements were published online, he has seen other promotions, including New England's Beyond Wrestling, remove him from their social media and that he "has not been able to maintain the same level of visibility or obtain further contracting or matching opportunities to compensate for his damages" due to all the canceled bookings.
The lawsuit alleges that "due to the dissemination of Defendants’ untrue statements, many of Mr. Torre’s business associates have cut off their connections to Mr. Torre in order to avoid potential reputational damages to themselves resulting from the allegations concerning Mr. Torre."
The lawsuit stated that before the statements were made about him online, "Mr. Torre received fees per appearance when attending matches and events with multiple promotions. Prior to Defendants’ defamation campaign, Mr. Torre would be booked for fifteen to twenty events per month on average, with a total monthly earning capacity of $20,000 on average" but now he is no longer able to maintain that level of work. He has alleged losses of $50,000 over the last several months and believes those losses will grow in the future.
Torre is suing for defamation, false promotion under the Lanham Act (which protects trademarks, so he is claiming they have damaged the trademark of Chris Dickinson to the public) and tortious interference with his contractual relationship with New Japan Pro Wrestling."
Torre is asking the court for:
"Judgment on the claim set forth above; b. An award of compensatory damages according to proof at trial, as well as punitive and exemplary damages where authorized; c. An order enjoining Defendants and those in active concert with Defendants from disseminating or publishing any further defamatory statements concerning Mr. Torre; d. An order directing Defendants to retract their defamatory statements from any non-party who they have contacted regarding the matters alleged in this complaint; e. An order directing Defendants to undertake such remedial efforts as the Court deems necessary to restore Mr. Torre’s reputation;
f. Prejudgment and post-judgment interest at the applicable rate; g. An award for reasonable attorney’s fees, costs and disbursements, where applicable; and
h. Such other and further relief the Court deems proper and just."
The lawsuit was filed after a back and forth between Karlooni and Torre's attorneys after Torre sent a cease and desist order to Karlooni's attorney, demanding she stop speaking about him, which was covered by Canada's SlamWrestling.net.
Court records indicate Karlooni and Coulter were served with the lawsuit earlier this week. They have not yet responded to the court.
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