WWE, TKO, Vince McMahon and Linda McMahon just took another loss in their attempt to shut down the “ring boy” lawsuit before it gets much further. A federal judge rejected their latest argument for dismissal, meaning the seven former ring boys can keep pushing their case toward discovery.
Ringside News has learned via court documents that U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar handed down the decision on October 19. This time, the fight centered on Maryland’s Child Victims Act and whether applying it to allegations dating back roughly four decades violated the defendants’ rights under the U.S. Constitution.
That’s a pretty big deal because Maryland’s law is the reason these claims can still be brought in the first place. The state eliminated the time limit for civil lawsuits involving childhood sexual abuse in 2023, long after the normal statute of limitations on these allegations would have expired.
WWE and the McMahons argued that having to defend themselves after so much time has passed creates serious problems. Several people connected to the allegations are dead, including former WWF ring announcer Mel Phillips and former executives Pat Patterson and Terry Garvin, while other potential witnesses have also passed away.
Bredar acknowledged that defending a case this old could be difficult. He still wasn’t convinced that those problems were enough to make Maryland’s law unconstitutional.
“And it may be hard for Defendants to muster an effective defense where evidence is stale, memories are frail, and witnesses are deceased.”
The judge found that states have broad authority when it comes to setting and changing deadlines for lawsuits. In his view, the defendants hadn’t shown that Maryland acted irrationally by reopening the door for childhood sexual abuse claims.
“Defendants do not show how their particular hardships make the [Maryland Child Victims Act] arbitrary or irrational.”
Bredar also rejected the idea that the defendants’ individual difficulties defending such an old case were enough to kill the law. He said they were essentially asking the court to hold Maryland lawmakers to a tougher standard than the Fourteenth Amendment requires.
“Instead, Defendants attempt to hold the [Maryland] legislature to a stricter standard than is required under the Due Process Clause.”
The judge didn’t completely brush aside the problems that come with litigating allegations from the 1980s and 1990s. He simply made it clear that his job at this stage wasn’t to decide whether those problems make the lawsuit harder to defend, but whether Maryland had the constitutional authority to change its law. In the end, Bredar found that Maryland lawmakers had a legitimate reason for removing the old time limit.
“But the Court’s role here is to interpret the United States Constitution and to resolve disputes that arise under it. The Maryland General Assembly created its statute of limitations for child sexual abuse claims and, in response to a legitimate and pressing issue, decided to alter it in a rational way.”
This ruling absolutely does not mean the seven plaintiffs have proven their allegations. Bredar wasn’t deciding whether the alleged abuse happened or whether WWE, TKO or either McMahon was responsible, and the defendants have denied the central claims in the lawsuit.
The seven men say they were minors when they were sexually abused while working around WWF events in the 1980s and 1990s. All seven accuse Phillips of abuse, while one also alleges abuse by Patterson and another alleges sexual harassment involving Garvin. Their lawsuit claims WWE and the McMahons were negligent in allowing the alleged conduct to happen.
This also isn’t the first time the plaintiffs have survived an attempt to stop the case. An earlier ruling left seven plaintiffs moving forward, with all seven pursuing claims against Vince McMahon, WWE and TKO, while two still have claims against Linda McMahon.
Now things can get much more interesting because the lawsuit can move toward discovery, where evidence is exchanged and depositions can be taken. A teleconference is scheduled for November 17 to establish future deadlines, although any potential trial would still be several months away at minimum.
There’s also still a chance this latest ruling gets challenged. Bredar is a federal district judge, meaning the defendants could eventually try taking the issue to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, but POST Wrestling reported that they hadn’t immediately responded when asked whether an appeal was coming.
So this isn’t a verdict against WWE or the McMahons, but it is another attempt to stop the case that didn’t work. The bigger story now is that the lawsuit is getting closer to the stage where both sides will have to start digging into the actual evidence behind allegations that have followed WWE’s history for decades.
What do you think about the ring boy lawsuit surviving another attempt to have it thrown out before discovery? Let us know in the comments below.
