Devon Nicholson sues WWE HOF legend Abdullah The Butcher

The Thunder Bay, Ontario Net News Ledger is reporting that Canadian independent wrestler Devon Nicholson has filed a lawsuit against Larry Shreve, better known by his ring name of Abdullah The Butcher, for a whopping $6.5 million over allegations that Shreve's negligence, assault and battery during a wrestling match together caused Nicholson to catch Hepatitis C from Shreve.  Having Hepatitis C caused Nicholson to fail a WWE medical in 2009, which caused the company to rescind their developmental job offer to him.  Nicholson first publicised these allegations a few days before Shreve's induction into the WWE Hall Of Fame via the first part of a documentary he filmed entitled "Don't Bleed On Me - Wrestling's Hepatitis C Secret Revealed".  My colleague David Bixenspan did an excellent job at the time of analysing the documentary footage and putting it in the context of other strange behaviour by Shreve during his career and other known cases of Hepatitis C in wrestling, which is well worth reading again.

Since then, the second part of the documentary, which can be seen after the jump, has been released where Nicholson insists that the only possible way he could have caught Hepatitis C is from working a double blood match with Shreve where Shreve sliced himself then Nicholson with the same blade.  He also claims that Shreve initially agreed to provide him and his lawyer blood work in September 2010 to prove his Hepatitis C status, but Shreve has since backtracked on that promise and they haven't heard back from him since.

Shreve hasn't been entirely silent about the issue.  Dave Meltzer reported in the May 2nd subscriber only Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Shreve told Puerto Rican newspaper Noticel that he was "too busy for blood tests", had never spoken to Nicholson's lawyer, didn't have the disease and would be a lot less fat if he did.  Hmm, I'm getting James Toney "Look at this body, do I look like I use steroids?" vibe here, which isn't a good sign.  According to Greg Oliver of SLAM! Wrestling, Shreve posted the following on his Facebook page a fortnight ago:

I received my medical reports; I have NO hepatitis, or AIDS and anything.  My blood tests are ALL negatives then these fools will be prosecured in justice... Hannibal, Billy Graham and especially New Jack, the most vulgar Boy whom business knew!

Hmm, I'm still not convinced.  That said, even if Shreve has indeed got Hepatitis C, Nicholson will have a tough job proving that was the only possible way he could have caught the disease.  So I'm not convinced yet either way, though Nicholson so far is coming across as the more plausible of the two in this legal conflict.