Ring Boys Scandal Lawsuit Against WWE, TKO, Vince McMahon, & Linda McMahon Update – Ring Boys Survivors Pushing Back Against WWE & The McMahons Attempts to Dismiss Case

As noted before, a lawsuit was filed this past October against WWE, WWE’s parent company TKO Group, former WWE Chairman Vince McMahon, and Linda McMahon on behalf of the survivors of the infamous WWE Ring Boys scandal in 1992. Additional survivors recently joined as plaintiffs for the lawsuit following the Maryland Supreme Court upholding the Maryland Child Victims Act as being constitutional this past February. More survivors joined as plaintiffs this past April and filed new additional allegations.

Post Wrestling and Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston reported that the plaintiffs filed on Monday their formal opposition to the defendants’ recent motions to dismiss the lawsuit based on recent court records.

In the filing, the plaintiffs are requesting for a federal judge in Maryland to reject the efforts by the defendants to have the case thrown out. The ring boys attorneys reportedly argue that the alleged abuse has direct connections to Maryland and WWE and its then-leadership either enabled or failed to prevent the harm.

Thurston reported that should WWE, TKO, and the McMahons be successful in having the case moved out of Maryland due to juridical issues, the plaintiffs could likely face a possibly insurmountable obstacle. Thurston reported that other states in the Northeast where the alleged abuses took place would likely enforce deadlines that prevent viable lawsuits related to decades-old abuse.

In the filing, the plaintiffs also challenge the idea that WWE, TKO, or the McMahons had no duty to protect them due to the ring boys not being formal employees. The defendants claim that the ring boys were working for Mel Phillips and not the company and claim that the alleged abuse was committed by individuals acting outside of their roles with WWE. The plaintiffs argued that they were effectively workers for WWE even if not formally hired and that both WWE and the McMahons knew about Phillips’ inappropriate behavior as early as the 1970s and still brought him back after letting him go in 1988.

In the filing, the plaintiffs also claimed that TKO inherited WWE’s legal liabilities when the two companies merged in 2023 and WWE and TKO now operate as one company for their reason why they included TKO as a defendant in the lawsuit.

Thurston reported that the ring boys attorneys have also asked the court to allow the plaintiffs to amend their lawsuit or pursue limited discovery on jurisdictional issues should the judge grant the defendants motions to dismiss the case.