More than 50 retired professional wrestlers are suing the WWE and its CEO, Vince McMahon, in hopes of proving the repeated head injuries they sustained while in the ring are linked to CTE, the progressive degenerative brain disease that has been commonly found in athletes who have experienced repeated concussions.

The 214-page lawsuit filed Monday in the U.S. District Court of Connecticut claims that the company is responsible for their long-term neurological damage and alleges that the WWE “fraudulently misrepresented and concealed” the dangers of these injuries.

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

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A legal feud between Hulk Hogan and the Gawker media empire is  finally making its way to court. Hogan filed a $100 million defamation suit against Gawker back in 2012 after the site published a minute and 41-second long chunk of the sex tape. That suit is now making its way to trial–jury selection just began in St. Petersburg, Florida.

The sex tape featured Hogan–whose legal name is actually Terry Bollea–and Heather Cole, who at the time was the wife of radio personality Bubba the Love Sponge Clem. The fact that Clem and Hogan used to be good friends put a whole new twisted spin on the entire thing. The existence of the tape was actually not a secret, given that multiple news sites referenced it and some published stills from it. But Gawker, which received the video anonymously in 2012, was the first to actually publish a segment of it. The article was entitled, with true Gawker panache “Even for a Minute, Watching Hulk Hogan Have Sex in a Canopy Bed Is Not Safe for Work but Watch It Anyway.”

Hogan is claiming that his privacy was violated because of the sex tape leak, is suing the media company for defamation, and accused Gawker’s lawyers of releasing confidential comments from the video to the media. While the idea that the most salacious part of a sex video could be the things said on it sounds kind of insane, it’s not–the comments released were racist remarks about his daughter Brooke Hogan dating a black man. The ensuing backlash eventually led to WWE severing ties with one of its biggest stars. Hogan’s lawyers called Gawker’s actions “outrageous, irresponsible, and despicable.”

Gawker’s response has been mostly focused on First Amendment rights, and the media company says that because Hogan has been open about his sex life in the past, the video was fair game. Gawker founder Nick Denton said last summer: “I care about the readers having the right to know both sides of a story. Readers should also have the right to get the story behind the celebrity story.”

Essentially, this entire case boils down to questions about how much privacy celebrities can expect–especially in the age of the internet and easily-shareable recordings. A jury in St. Petersburg will have to decide the answer to those questions soon.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

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If your pro-wrestling-obsessed Uncle Jimmy seems a little down in the dumps this week, he might have heard the news that the legendary 1980s wrestler Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka was arrested for a murder he allegedly committed in 1983.

For everyone who was not yet born or still in Pampers during the early eighties, basically Jimmy Snuka was a professional wrestling icon not unlike Hulk Hogan. At the height of his fame, his girlfriend (well, mistress technically) Nancy Argentino mysteriously died in a Pennsylvania motel room that the couple was staying in. No one was officially charged with her murder, but Snuka was ordered to pay $500,000 to the Argentino family in a wrongful death case. Fun fact: Snuka never paid up because he claimed he was broke.

Why is a case that’s over 30 years old being re-opened now? Two major developments. Number one: Snuka penned an autobiography released in 2012 wherein he discusses the night Argentino died. His accounts do not add up with police records, and authorities were able to point out several inconsistencies. Number two: the Pennsylvania news outlet The Morning Call published a piece on the 30^th anniversary of the death of Nancy Argentino that further implored authorities to re-visit the cold case in the interest of justice for the deceased’s family. It is the oldest cold case to result in charges in the history of Lehigh County.

Here’s where things take an even sadder/weirder turn. Snuka was charged with third degree murder—which, as any first year law student can tell you, means a killing with malice. Yet, after Snuka was sent to the county jail, he was able to leave after posting $100,000 bail. Did Lehigh County allow a murderer to essentially pay his way out of jail? Not so, says Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin. As it turns out, 72-year-old Jimmy Snuka has stomach cancer…and very expensive medical bills.

I do not want to burden the taxpayers of Lehigh County with medical expenses, which would be extremely high and would have to be borne by them if he remained in Lehigh County Jail,” Martin said.

Quite logical…yet extremely unsatisfying to a certain extent. An exorbitant amount of effort and judicial action went into prosecuting a decades-old crime. The perpetrator has been officially identified. Now the family of Nancy Argentino must live with the fact that the man guilty of the heinous crime that changed their lives never went to jail. Perhaps the small bit of justice is that now the guilty man must live with the knowledge that all the world knows, unequivocally, that he is guilty.

Corinne Fitamant

Corinne Fitamant is a graduate of Fordham College at Lincoln Center where she received a Bachelors degree in Communications and a minor in Theatre Arts. When she isn’t pondering issues of social justice and/or celebrity culture, she can be found playing the guitar and eating chocolate. Contact Corinne at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

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