Connecticut judge dismisses two lawsuits against WWE

WWE’s headquarters are located at 1241 East Main St. in Stamford. WWE’s headquarters are located at 1241 East Main St. in Stamford. Photo: Morgan Kaolian /AEROPIX / ST Photo: Morgan Kaolian /AEROPIX / ST Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Connecticut judge dismisses two lawsuits against WWE 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

STAMFORD — A U.S. District Court judge in Connecticut has dismissed two lawsuits filed against Stamford-based World Wrestling Entertainment on behalf of two late wrestlers.

Relatives of Nelson Frazier and Matthew Osborne had filed wrongful death claims against WWE, alleging that Frazier and Osborne’s deaths resulted from traumatic brain injuries suffered while they worked for WWE and that WWE’s negligence or fraudulent conduct contributed to their injuries.

Frazier died of a heart attack in 2014, some six years after he last performed with WWE, according to court records. Osborne died in 2013 from opiate-related causes, about 10 years after he last wrestled regularly for WWE.

“Not only have plaintiffs failed to plausibly allege that their decedent had (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), neither plaintiff has alleged facts linking their decedent’s death with CTE,” Judge Vanessa Bryant wrote Thursday in her decision.

Michelle James, the mother of two of Osborne’s children, failed to provide facts that would “indicate on what information she relied to determine that Osborne had CTE, or that Osborne’s death from a drug overdose was caused by CTE,” Bryant wrote.

Bryant was similarly unconvinced by Frazier’s widow, Cassandra Frazier, who linked her husband’s fatal heart attack to a “worse-off state of well-being” caused by alleged negligence by WWE. Bryant described that assertion as the “sole allegation” linking the heart attack with “any wrongful act” by WWE.

Under Connecticut law, a wrongful death case must allege “specific facts tending to show a plausible connection between the death of the decedent and the wrongful conduct alleged against the defendant,” Bryant said.

WWE attorneys declined to comment on the decision. A message left for Konstantine Kyros, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, was not immediately returned.

Kyros has filed several lawsuits against WWE in recent years, including two other recently dismissed complaints. He filed another class-action suit against WWE in July, alleging that 50 former wrestlers had suffered major neurological damage related to their performances in their ring. WWE has denied the claims in that latest lawsuit and is seeking to have them dismissed.

Bryant denied a request by WWE to formally sanction Kyros for conduct that WWE said violated court regulations. But she did strongly admonish Kyros for his actions.

“Kyros’ unprovable claim that deceased and, in at least one case, cremated former wrestlers had CTE ‘upon information and belief’ are highly unprofessional,” Bryant wrote. “These misleading, deceptive and baseless allegations are precisely the types of statements that many state bar associations have targeted in promulgating rules of professional conduct which demand that admitted attorneys speak with candor to the trier of fact.”

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