We are going to collect & post important publicly available information and exhibits/info from the lawsuits to educate anyone interested about the facts that are the basis of the claims made by the wrestlers.
I also encourage anyone to send us (wrestling fans that want to help) any videos, magazines, books, interviews that describe head injuries at any WWE event, such as those below. The premise is that the WWE (and its predecessors) knew about the head injuries and the risks of those injuries for many years before taking any meaningful action to help treat and properly medically manage wrestlers during and after their careers.
Point: Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy: A Real Disease, but Not a New One by Douglas C. Miller, MD, PhD | AANS Neurosurgeon: 2016
Important article that emphasizes a central theme of the lawsuit- that the long term risks from repetitive head trauma have been known to medicine for decades. For example in 1976, a standard reference stated, “It is well established that persons subjected to repeated concussive or sub-concussive blows, such as boxers and footballers (presumably she meant rugby players), may develop neurological signs and progressive dementia, the ‘punch-drunk’ syndrome. The author notes: “The neuropathological descriptions of the disorder are now more sophisticated and involve immunohistochemical stains for microtubule-associated protein tau, beta-amyloid, TAR-DNA binding protein (TDP-43) and other potentially relevant antigens.”
So when did the WWE and other sports organizations know about these risks?
A) A WWF program aired April 4, 1981 (Spectrum Wrestling) see exchange at 1:57 mark, WWF announcer Kal Rudman (“Killer Kal”) asks then wrestler Pat Patterson if wrestlers get “punch drunk.” Patterson answers: “Some of them do… In boxing punishment is taken to the head only, in wrestling it’s all over the body.” So did WWE know anything about head injuries prior to 2005?
B) In 1995, over ten years before WWE would implement an actual concussion policy, WWE aired a televised, scripted event describing the dangers of post-concussion syndrome, the associated risks and noted the comparisons to football players and boxers. Dr. Jeffrey Unger, a WWE physician, diagnosed a WWE Superstar, Shawn Michaels with a fake, scripted post-concussion syndrome and detailed the return to play guidelines WWE enacted.