Former WWE wrestlers' lawsuit over brain damage is dismissed

A federal appeals court dismissed a lawsuit Wednesday that had been filed by 50 former pro wrestlers, many of them stars in the 1980s and 1990s, who claimed World Wrestling Entertainment failed to protect them from repeated head injuries, including concussions that led to long-term brain damage.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City agreed with a federal judge in Connecticut who tossed the lawsuits two years ago, saying many of the claims were frivolous or filed after the statute of limitations expired. Stamford, Connecticut-based WWE denied the suit's allegations.

Among the plaintiffs were Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka, Joseph “Road Warrior Animal” Laurinaitis, Paul “Mr. Wonderful” Orndorff, Chris “King Kong Bundy” Pallies and Harry Masayoshi Fujiwara, known as Mr. Fuji.

Snuka and Fujiwara died in 2017 and 2016, respectively, and were diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, after their deaths, according to their lawyer. Pallies died last year of undisclosed causes. Other plaintiffs have dementia and other illnesses, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit, which also named WWE Chairman Vince McMahon as a defendant, said the organization knew the risks of head injuries but didn’t warn the wrestlers. U.S. District Judge Vanessa Bryant in Hartford, however, said there was no evidence that WWE knew that concussions or head blows during wrestling matches caused CTE.

The lawyer for the former wrestlers, Konstantine Kyros, based in Hingham, Massachusetts, called the ruling a “rubber stamp” of Bryant's decision and “utterly devoid of any original reasoning or engagement with the legal issues raised in the wrestlers' appeal.”

“In its conclusory assertions the injured wrestlers find no justice having been literally denied a day in court,” Kyros wrote in an email to The...