There has been a recent COVID-19 outbreak in WWE NXT and at the WWE Performance Center, which led to changes on Wednesday's TV show. It's been reported that the outbreak may have started with a WWE Performance Center Coach, but that was not confirmed. In an update, PWInsider now reports that there was no training in Florida on Thursday, and there's no word yet on when training will resume.
On Tuesday's episode of The Wrestling Inc. Daily podcast, Wrestling Inc. Managing Editor Nick Hausman sat down with longtime WWE lawyer Jerry McDevitt after WWE's recent victory in the CTE lawsuits brought against them. McDevitt went through the history of the lawsuits brought to WWE by attorney Konstantine Kyros.
"Well in the beginning, we noticed prior to October of 2014, this Kyros fellow was advertising on the internet and soliciting former wrestlers to contact him to bring lawsuits that would be patterned after the cases that had been brought against the NFL, which if you remember, resulted in the NFL agreeing to pay a billion dollars plus end up settling," McDevitt recalled. "And when they did that, they kind of emboldened a lot of the plaintiffs, class action lawyers and what not to sue anybody that had any kind of history with head trauma, concussions or things of that nature. And so they did.
"They brought lawsuits against college football teams in the NCAA and high school teams, water polo. You name it, and Kyros' solicitations suggested in his website suggested, incorrectly we believe, that he had somehow been involved in obtaining the settlement for the NFL players and would be able to replicate that if only these wrestlers would agree to hire him so he could sue the WWE to get the same amount of money and the same thing for the former wrestlers. So he was basically soliciting them with promises of there's nothing to lose.
"You can get money out of this, and I'll take a contingent fee of what I get, but it won't cost you anything, and he actually went out on radio shows and stuff and podcasts and was making statements to the effect that well, the more people that sign up, the more pressure we can bring on WWE to settle these cases and pay us a lot of money. And we know he had told these people that he would be able to use this litigation to renegotiate contracts that were expired long ago and get them better royalties and a bunch of nonsense frankly."
McDevitt continued discussing the other lawsuits brought against WWE by multiple individuals. All concussion-related lawsuits were dismissed by the courts in 2018.
"And I feel bad that he misled so many people because he did,
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals today affirmed the dismissal of all the CTE cases filed against WWE by Konstantine Kyros.
This appeal arises from seven cases consolidated in the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut against the company by former WWE wrestlers, starting with a putative class action suit filed in October of 2014 by William Albert Haynes III, a.k.a Billy Jack Haynes. Two of the seven cases were not appealed.
The former WWE talent claimed that they suffered CTE as well as other physical and mental health impairments due to the physical trauma they experienced while performing for the company. Kyros represented the plaintiffs / appellants in each of the cases.
The appeals of the cases brought by Haynes, Russ McCullough, Cassandra Frazier and Evan Singleton (Vito LoGrasso) were dismissed on the grounds that Kyros' appeal of those cases was not on time. Regarding the fifth case, brought by Joseph M. Laurinaitis (Road Warrior Animal), which involved dozens of former performers, the court decided on the merits and ruled that all those claims were either time barred or defective for the reasons cited by the trial judge.
It was noted to Wrestling Inc. that the amount of money that Kyros will have to pay WWE as a sanction is all that remains now to be decided.
It would appear that the era of WWE talent using Twitch, Cameo, YouTube, and other third parties to make extra income and build names for themselves outside WWE is coming to an end.
First reported by Wrestling Inc. and confirmed by our Bryan Alvarez, Vince McMahon sent a letter to talents on Thursday, saying they have 30 days to stop engaging with third parties or else face fines, suspensions and even termination at WWE's discretion.
It's unclear what "third parties" means, however. Several wrestlers operate successful Twitch and YouTube channels where they interact with fans while playing video games or other activities.
The letter comes following a Sunday meeting with talent about the "reinvention of the product" where it came up that WWE owns the real names of talent in addition to their character names.
WWE wrestlers are independent contractors, so there is a legal question of what WWE can mandate and what they can/do own.
From the letter: "Some of you are engaged with outside third parties using your name and likeness in ways that are detrimental to our company. It is imperative that these activities be terminated within the next 30 days (by Friday October 2). Continued violations will result in fines, suspension, or termination at WWE's discretion.
For the third week in a row, WWE NXT aired with no head-to-head competition from AEW Dynamite last night. This was the first of two NXT Super Tuesday episodes due to the NHL playoffs airing on the USA Network.
NXT drew 849,000 viewers on the USA Network last night, according to Showbuzz Daily. This is up 3% from last week's 824,000 viewers.
This is the third-best NXT viewership of 2020, and the eighth-best of all-time.
NXT drew a 0.26 rating in the 18-49 demographic this week. Last week's show drew a 0.24 in the same demo.
The 0.26 rating in the key demo is the best of 2020, and the best since the December 18 episode, which drew a 0.27 rating in the 18-49 demographic.
This week's show ranked #60 in viewership and #10 on the Cable Top 150. Last week's show ranked #24 on the Cable Top 150 and #83 in viewership.
This is a rare top 10 finish for NXT on the Cable Top 150.
Mauro Ranallo is gone from WWE.
Ranallo confirmed the departure on his Facebook page, as seen below. He wrote, "I appreciate the opportunity I had to realize my childhood dream of working in sports entertainment, and I wish WWE well in the future. Now I want to direct my focus and devote my time to my other projects and to my mental health charitable activities and the well-being of my mother and myself."
Ranallo reportedly finished with WWE at some point over the last few weeks, according to PWInsider. One source believes the departure happened shortly after the "Takeover: XXX" event during SummerSlam Weekend. There has been talk within WWE over the last week or so that Ranallo was leaving and/or was done, but details were hard to come by.
Mauro missed that NXT Takeover event earlier this month and it was reported that he missed the show because he had to return home to Canada for a family emergency.
There's no word yet on what will happen to the NXT commentary team, which currently consists of Vic Joseph and WWE Hall of Famer Beth Phoenix. Wade Barrett did guest commentary last week, and will return for more guest commentary on this week's NXT Super Tuesday special. It was revealed today that Barrett is negotiating a full-time contract with WWE to do NXT commentary, and some NXT UK commentary.
It was recently announced that Ranallo will be doing commentary in the 2K WWE Battlegrounds video game with WWE Hall of Famer Jerry Lawler.
Ranallo first signed with WWE in 2015 but parted ways with the company in 2017 for some time off. He returned in June 2017 to lead the NXT announce team, reportedly signing a multi-year deal at that time.
