Two more former WWE wrestlers file concussion lawsuits against the company

Three months ago, we reported that former WWE wrestler Billy Jack Haynes had filed a class action concussion lawsuit against the company, in which he alleged that the head trauma that he sustained whilst wrestling for WWE led him to suffering from depression and exhibiting symptoms of dementia in later life. A clear weakness with the litigation was the plaintiff's short tenure with WWE and the huge length of time that had passed since he had worked for the promotion.

According to David Bixenspan of f4wonline.com, two former WWE wrestlers, Vito LoGrasso and Evan Singleton, have now filed similar class action concussion lawsuits against WWE in Pennsylvania and are being represented by the same lawyer as Haynes too.

LoGrasso worked a handful of dates for WWE as jobber Skull Von Krus in the early 1990s, but would be better remembered for working as Big Vito on Smackdown from July 2005 to January 2007, first as a stereotypical hot blooded Italian and later as a cross dresser. He now claims to be suffering from "serious neurological damage, including severe headaches, memory loss, depression and anxiety, as well as deafness".

Singleton was a WWE developmental trainee and worked under the name Adam Mercer in both Florida Championship Wrestling and NXT during 2012 and early 2013. His lawsuit alleges that:

"After approximately 15 matches, during which he sustained multiple traumas, he suffered a serious head injury during a match with Eric Rowan. The WWE cleared him to continue wrestling after inadequate rest time and downplayed his injury."

It looks like WWE's doctors cleared him to return to the ring after five months, but he worked only one more match before being cut. Since then, he's suffered from a number of severe neurological symptoms and it was later discovered that he had a bleed in the left hemisphere of his brain.

These lawsuits are getting more press than the original one by Billy Jack Haynes, as the Associated Press ran a story about them earlier today. In the article, WWE's lawyer Jerry McDevitt argued that the litigation had no merit and rebuffed accusations that the company had ever concealed information about traumatic brain injuries from its talent:

"WWE has never concealed any medical information related to concussions, or otherwise, from our (performers). WWE was well ahead of sports organizations in implementing concussion management procedures and policies as a precautionary measure as the science and research on this issue emerged."

That said, if the allegations are true that WWE discouraged Singleton from seeing a neurologist after the TBI he suffered in NXT, then one would assume they would have a harder time defending themselves from these lawsuits than if Haynes had remained the sole party suing WWE.