Maven on declining to join the lawsuit against WWE in 2016

In a video published to his YouTube channel, former WWE star Maven commented how he was approached with an offer to join a lawsuit against WWE in 2016. However, Maven declined and explained why…

“When I was approached a few years back to join a lawsuit against the WWE for those injuries, I politely declined. The year was 2016, and by this time, I was entering a new phase of my life. By that I mean my post-wrestling career. I’ve talked all about previous bitterness I had toward the business and what it took to finally let those demons go. So during this time, I actually probably as weird as this is to say, I had my first big boy adult job. I was working with Verizon and just doing basic corporate sales. But I received a letter at my house. I didn’t pay it much mind, but then I started hearing rumblings, and some of the other boys started talking about, ‘Hey, did you get the letter?’ I found out that what was taking place was a class action lawsuit. Basically from my understanding, [it was] for head trauma. The world was a totally different place when I was in the ring, and yeah, we knew about concussions, but we considered it getting your bell rung. We figured that if you couldn’t finish the match, well hell, you’ll definitely be out there the next night. I don’t think people fully grasped and understood exactly how debilitating over time head trauma and CTE could be.”

“So by 2016, people were looking to strike, and people were looking to place blame. In my opinion, the WWE was an easy target. Now I think they are to blame for some mistreatment of workers, putting guys out there when they definitely had no business, and I always thought if records come out and it proved they did know what the risks were, okay, then maybe they should be held liable. Once I received the letter, I didn’t immediately disregard it. I didn’t immediately chuck it in the trash and say, ‘Nah, there’s no way in hell.’ I put some thought into it. Now, at the time, I didn’t have an attorney, I didn’t have representation. So not having my own representation meant I was going to have to trust the firm that was bringing forth the suit. There was no reason I wouldn’t have trusted them. But going forward, I would have definitely wanted to at least reach out and talk to an attorney and just make sure any decision made was made in my best interest. So for about a good week, I actually did consider it. I did ponder it, and here’s what I did know, and here are the pros and cons that I gathered myself. Pros, obviously, it could be a decent chunk of money, decent payoff, and I could be standing up for the seriousness of head trauma. I definitely do, I’ve mentioned it before, I’m very happy that the wrestlers, they’re just smarter. They don’t take unnecessary chair shots. Accidents happen, but they then take the needed time off. The cons, there were two. The first con was, well, when you join forces with a lawsuit, in my mind that immediately almost makes you the enemy, and I figured that if I did join, the WWE might view me as…almost like I’m stabbing them in the back. Another con would have been time that I would have had to put into it. I would have had to meet with an attorney, might even be called to take a deposition. The fact that I was just getting my feet wet, trying to get into the business world and I had put my wrestling career in the rearview mirror, I didn’t think it the best use of my time to be telling my employer, ‘Well, I’m gonna need X amount of days off,’ if I’d go to them and tell them, well, what do you need the time off for? I’m suing a company I used to work for. I don’t think the answer they’re gonna give me is, ‘Go get them.’ I had things going in a positive direction for the first time in the better part of four years, and I didn’t want to rock that boat.”

“Had this lawsuit have come around four years earlier, had it been placed in my lap two, three months after my arrest, had this lawsuit been placed in my lap then, I’m not ashamed to admit I probably would have seen it in a completely different light. Another con that arose is the mental toll. The moment I would have signed my name onto the sheet and said yes, I’m a part of this lawsuit, two things would have happened. One, I would have been worried about how the WWE then viewed me moving forward. I would have constantly been checking the dirt sheets or keeping my ear open. Two, I would have been waiting for a check that maybe was never coming. Let’s say a settlement was reached. I don’t know, would the check have been to my liking when they’re at that point putting a number on my health? I didn’t want to be waiting for money that I don’t know if it would have ever shown up, and I definitely didn’t want to say any injuries, any pain that I suffered in the ring are worth $50,000, $70,000, hell, $5,000. I don’t know. I have no idea what the dollar figure would have been, but I personally didn’t want to be waiting for fairy dust that I didn’t know if it was gonna drop in my lap or not. But ultimately, I didn’t sign on to the class action lawsuit. I don’t look down on anyone who signed on to the lawsuits because I’m sitting in this seat, I’m not sitting in their seat. I don’t know what their issues were. I don’t know what they were going through with their lives. I don’t know what pain they dealt with.’

(quotes: Colin Tessier)