The wild Armando Alejandro Montalvo saga is back — and this time he’s taking WWE and law enforcement to federal court. More than a decade after Montalvo was shot outside the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, he has filed a lawsuit accusing WWE, Orange County deputies and several other parties of conspiring against him before and after the infamous 2015 incident.
According to court documents obtained by Ringside News, Montalvo filed the case in May in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida’s Orlando Division, with an amended complaint later filed. World Wrestling Entertainment, WWE Performance Center manager David Bailey, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, individual deputies, Aspire Health Partners and Walmart are all named as defendants. And Montalvo isn’t making small accusations here. He is claiming the entire mess outside WWE’s Performance Center on August 31, 2015 was part of a much bigger setup involving excessive force, false arrests and efforts to keep him mentally incapacitated.
According to Montalvo’s lawsuit, he was unarmed, drunk and wearing headphones when things exploded outside WWE’s training facility. He claims WWE employees mocked him and bypassed the normal 911 system to contact off-duty deputies directly.
Montalvo then alleges an off-duty deputy ambushed and shot him even though, according to his complaint, a female WWE employee at the scene had already said he didn’t have a weapon. He goes even further by alleging a knife was planted after the shooting to make the use of force look justified.
Those are Montalvo’s allegations, and they have not been established as fact in court. Montalvo has been pushing the “I was unarmed” version of the story for a long time. During a 2026 confrontation with his public defender outside court, which Ringside News previously covered, he made his position crystal clear.
“I didn’t shoot the police officers. They shot me. I didn’t have a weapon on me.”
Montalvo has also admitted alcohol was involved that day. During a court-ordered psychological evaluation earlier this year, he said he was drunk at the time of the WWE Performance Center incident and claimed everything that happened afterward wrecked his life. As Ringside News previously covered, Montalvo blamed the media and mental-health system for what came next.
“When I was shot in front of the WWE Performance Center, I was drunk. And what happened was the general news and the media utilized a mental health stigma and a label to deteriorate my mental health and put me on all these psych drugs and kept me inhabited and kept—kept me sick.”
That claim now sits right in the middle of his federal lawsuit. Montalvo alleges Aspire Health Partners used Florida’s Baker Act against him and pumped him full of psychotropic medication through what he calls “polypharmacy.” Montalvo claims the medication was used to keep him subdued and unable to properly pursue his criminal appeal. During that same psychological evaluation, he described the amount of medication he says he was taking in even more dramatic terms.
“They put me on polypharmacy… I was shocked I was still breathing.”
The lawsuit doesn’t stop with WWE or the 2015 shooting either. Montalvo is also dragging Walmart into the fight over a separate June 4, 2020 incident at an East Colonial Drive location.
He claims Walmart management and responding deputies worked together to trap him on false criminal trespass charges. Montalvo points to prosecutors later dropping those charges as part of his argument that he has repeatedly been targeted.
Montalvo’s history with WWE was already completely off the rails years before this lawsuit. He repeatedly showed up at the WWE Performance Center demanding a job, and authorities accused him of threatening talent and even smearing feces on the building.
Things finally blew up on August 31, 2015 when Montalvo returned to WWE property despite previous warnings. Local footage showed him banging on doors and acting like a wrestling performer while demanding WWE train him before police arrived and the confrontation ended with Montalvo being shot.
He was later charged with aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, resisting arrest and trespassing. Montalvo pleaded not guilty. Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings later said Montalvo had become fixated on a female WWE performer.
“He’s been somewhat fixed on one of the wrestlers, one of the female wrestlers.”
WWE ultimately went to court to keep Montalvo away. The company received an injunction against him following the Performance Center incidents and later secured another protective order after Montalvo resurfaced online with comments WWE viewed as threatening.
That still didn’t completely end the chaos. Ringside News later covered Montalvo getting arrested again for trespassing on WWE property after he returned around company facilities.
His legal problems have continued into 2026. Montalvo was arrested after authorities accused him of leaving dead animals outside an Orange County Sheriff’s Office substation, although records later showed one related citation was voluntarily dismissed.
Now, more than 11 years after he was shot outside WWE’s front door, Montalvo wants a jury to hear his side of the entire saga. He is seeking compensatory damages, punitive damages and declaratory relief while accusing WWE, law enforcement, mental-health providers and Walmart of playing roles in a years-long conspiracy against him.
Montalvo has spent more than a decade insisting the story everybody knows about that Performance Center shooting isn’t the real story. Now he’s trying to force WWE and everyone else he blames into federal court and make that argument in front of a jury.
What do you make of Armando Montalvo suing WWE and law enforcement more than a decade after being shot outside the Performance Center? Let us know what you think and leave your feedback in the comments.
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