WWE should take a page from NFL’s book

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Something interesting is happening over the few past weeks in the world of professional wrestling.

Yes, I can hear you groaning already but hear me out.

You know all the concussion issues that have invaded the football field these past few years? Well it’s changed the way WWE has operated, with no chair shots to the head, a concussion protocol that forces performers to be sidelined until they’re cleared and other precautions that the company has taken to prevent these concussions.

Turns out, it’s too little too late as former wrestlers, including old timers like Animal from the Road Warriors, Sabu (made famous for his extreme antics during the ECW days) and Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka are suing the WWE claiming the organization is responsible for and had prior knowledge of the effects of repeated neurological injuries sustained in the ring.

The lawsuit reads that wrestlers claim the injuries they sustained “involve a neurological disease and ongoing disease process called Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) as well as the effects of Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) that occur as a consequence of repetitive head trauma sustained by the Plaintiffs as professional wrestlers in matches sponsored, controlled and created by WWE.”

Sound familiar?

In a lawsuit against the NFL former NFL players claimed they experienced head trauma “during their NFL football playing careers that resulted in brain injuries.”

One of the arguments the NFL made was that fact that these football players could have experienced those brain injuries during their time elsewhere. Pretty much the NFL said who’s to say your injuries weren’t caused in college or high school and just now it’s manifesting as CTE?

As despicable as the NFL can be on the way they’ve treated injuries, specifically head trauma, in the past, that fact hasn’t been disproven.

There is no science that tells you a concussion in high school is better or worse than one in the professional league. Nor is there science to tell you that a certain amount of concussions means you’re more likely to have CTE.

With this more recent lawsuit from the wrestlers, WWE can claim the same logic.

If you pull up the history of one of the well-known names in this lawsuit and read their background, WWE has a legitimate argument.

Joe Laurinaitis, or as wrestling fans better know him as Road Warrior Animal, began his career at a promotion called Georgia Championship Wrestling. He went on to wrestle at American Wrestling Association and All Japan Pro Wrestling before joining the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA).

That is seven years of wrestling before signing with the then WWF (World Wrestling Federation). He then bounced around between other promotions until 2003 where he made sporadic appearances for WWE (WWF changed to World Wrestling Entertainment).

Sabu (also known as Terry Michael Brunk) didn’t make it to WWE until 2006. He debuted in 1985, going through ECW (Extreme Championship Wrestling), WCW, back to ECW and other promotions until joining the WWE.

Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka wrestled a bit in the NWA before joining the WWF in 1982. Snuka has been on/off wrestling until last year when WWE suspended his Legends contract following his arrest in September 2015.

Those are just three Plaintiffs in the list of wrestlers that’s over 50 long. However, I’m willing to bet that an argument can be made for most of that list that any concussions or head trauma sustained in the ring could have happened anywhere and not necessarily within the WWE/WWF squared circle.

WWE can pull a page out of the NFL’s book and argue that point while negotiating some sort of settlement with those wrestlers.

Otherwise, the suing wrestlers taking down WWE for head trauma would be a bigger upset than 1-2-3 Kid beating Razor Ramon.  

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