https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sdwerg08haQ

WWE got a major win in court late on Thursday, as as Judge Vanessa L. Bryant in U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut dismissed both wrongful death lawsuits outstanding against the company. The lawsuits had been filed by Konstantine Kyros, the same attorney behind the other concussion-themed cases against WWE, on behalf of Cassandra Frazier, the widow of Nelson “Mabel/Viscera/Big Daddy V” Frazier Jr. and Michelle James, who Matt “Matt Borne/original Doink” Osborne had a child with.

Neither wrestler’s brain had been preserved for an examination to determine if they had Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), and neither death had any kind of head or brain trauma listed as a contributing cause on their death certificates. Frazier died of a heart attack (although no autopsy was performed) and Osborne succumbed to a drug overdose. Frazier was very overweight, as he had been for his whole career, while Borne had well-known issues with drug addiction going back to early in his career.

Curiously, the Frazier complaint was the only one of Kyros’ numerous brain injury lawsuits against WWE not to mention that CTE can only be diagnosed postmortem. Since Frazier was cremated with no autopsy conducted, it literally can’t ever be proven one way or another if he had CTE. This was one of a few things where Bryant appeared to take issue with the plaintiffs’ tactics. Other such notes include:

• “The Court notes, in particular, the facially specious assertions by Plaintiffs’ counsel that, ‘upon information and belief,’ both Frazier and Osborne ‘had CTE.’ The complaints contain no information from which such a belief could be derived.”
• “It is impossible to plausibly allege, much less prove that either wrestler had CTE. Kyros and his co-counsels’ assertion that either wrestler had the condition ‘upon information and belief’ must therefore be knowingly false.”
• “[C]ounsel’s allegation that Frazier’s ‘inability to survive the heart attack’ can be ‘more likely than not attributed’ to his CTE is yet another bald and baseless allegation, unprovable and unsupportable, which the Court deems unworthy of the barest measure of credibility.”

In the end, the James/Osborne case was officially dismissed because James lacked standing as not being the executor of Osborne’s estate. As for Frazier, that case was dismissed because the plaintiffs did not argue “specific facts” supporting the allegations that his death stemmed from in-ring injuries or any kind of potential fraudulent conduct on WWE’s part.

WWE had also moved to have Kyros sanctioned for violating Rule 11, which requires that attorneys have some kind of evidence supporting their allegations before filing suit.While the court denied the motion, Bryant did acknowledge “Kyros’ habit of deceptive and inflammatory rhetoric,” use of “deliberately misleading language,” “vexatious and transparent attempt to circumvent two prior decisions by district courts”

WWE talent booking contracts have become almost commonplace online, thanks in large part to WWE’s own filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). As a public company, all of World Wrestling Entertainment’s executive officers need to have their contracts released in SEC filings. Since WWE has multiple executive officers who also happen to perform for the company, that means that their talent contracts are all public and we see the current WWE contract whenever they re-sign. Older contracts have also come out in lawsuits over the years, as well, along with other internal pay documentation.

But one thing that I don’t recall seeing before is an official WWE termination letter. In one of the ongoing series of concussion-related lawsuits from wrestlers and their families represented by lawyer Konstantine Kyros, one was filed by WWE last week. Specifically, it’s the 2008 termination letter for Nelson Frazier Jr., then known as Big Daddy V, also known as Viscera and (King) Mabel. WWE outside counsel Jerry McDevitt filed a motion where one issue covered was Frazier’s place of residence, so he filed Frazier’s termination letter to show where he lived when the two parties ended their relationship. Here’s the full letter, minus personal information that I redacted:

There are a few key takeaways here beyond just the curiosity of seeing one of these:

• This is a notice of his termination being effective three months later. It’s tricky to figure out precisely how that relates to the conventional wisdom that there’s a 90 day “non-compete” period, as what WWE allowed during that period has changed at times. Here, it’s pretty clear that there are still 90 days left that the wrestler is still under contract and there’s nothing about being allowed to work elsewhere. These days, wrestler can usually pick up non-televised indie bookings while still being paid his or her WWE guarantee for 90 days, which can be fairly lucrative. One unique example is Daniel Bryan, who was re-hired before the 90 days were up after his abrupt firing in 2010.
• The wrestler being told to pay “particular attention” to the “promoter intellectual property” section of their contract is essentially telling them not to use their WWE names. In the case of Frazier, page 25 of his 2007 contract says that the WWE intellectual property is Viscera, Vis, Big Vis, Mabel, M.O.M., Men on a Mission, Ministry of Darkness, Corporate Ministry, and The World’s Largest Love Machine.The previous page says his IP is just his real name.
• Wrestlers must return “any tangible property” of WWE that they took possession of during the course of working for the company, “including, without limitation, costumes, accessories, inventions, and any title belts.” Since the wrestlers buy their own costumes, it’s hard t figure out what any of those could be other than the title belts.

Overall, though, there’s nothing too surprising here. It just helps demystify the inner workings of WWE a bit, and that’s always fun.

Former WWE performer “Sir Mo” of the Men On A Mission tag-team recently appeared as a guest on the Two Man Power Trip Of Wrestling podcast. Below are some of the highlights from the interview.

On former wrestlers and the wife of the late Nelson Frazier Jr. (Viscera, Big Daddy V, Mabel) holding Vince McMahon liable for medical issues and forcing performers to work hurt: “I’ve really thought about that myself, even with some medical issues that I’ve had myself and basically I worked there for three years and I’ve never seen Vince McMahon force anybody to do anything they didn’t want to do. I’ve never seen Vince McMahon ask anyone to work hurt, though I’ve done it before myself. As far as taking care of talent after they leave the company, I think it’s a great and noble thing, the whole drug rehab thing. The medical stuff, I don’t think he should be held responsible for that simply because and here’s the deal, Nelson and I wrestled in this business for more than three years before the WWE, then there is all the years after it so if we wrestled three years together in WWE and the whole three years that we wrestled there we worked every day, every month and we didn’t sustain any major injuries the whole three years we were there.”

On holding the business responsible rather than one single promoter: “There’s a million and one of us guys that worked for Vince and worked for Turner and worked for Crocket and worked for Bill Watts and worked for Joe sh*t- the-rag-bag Promoter or Jeff to-the Left and Eddie damn- Spaghetti and in some way taken a chance and got hurt or whatever. Ten years removed from working for Vince McMahon we are sick, we are broke down, we may even die but should Vince McMahon be held liable for that? Or should we have a list of every single promoter that each one of us worked for and include every single one of those into that lawsuit?”

On a backstage incident with Shawn Michaels: “We were overseas in Israel, it was during Passover and one night we were at an event and Nelson fainted in the hallway. So since we were overseas they wouldn’t take him to a hospital so they just took Nelson back to the hotel and we were working a program at the time against The Headshrinkers. The agent comes to me and the agent said Mo you are going to work a singles match against Samu from the Headshrinkers and Fatu is not going to work at all. Fatu didn’t like that idea, he was pissed off, he was ranting and raving about it and I’m standing there going over the match with Samu and Shawn Michaels comes out of the shower and he hit me in the back harder then I’ve ever been hit on the football field, he just knocked the hell out of me. The operative word from me was excuse me, and his response was f— excuse me, you guys have no work ethic. He said you young guys come up here with no f—ing work ethic and your f—ing partner fell down in the hall way, all he had to do was get his fat ass up and walk to the ring and you do all the work and there would be a tag match tonight instead of the bullshit singles match. He thought Nelson should have sucked it up, went to the ring and stood on the side and work because the kind of tag match we worked, I take the heat anyway. So that’s what he was pissed off about and he took it out on me. My response was being the man that I am is if you put your hands on me again, I’m gonna beat your f—ing-ass. Did I pay for it? Yeah, dearly. What did it get me? It got me pulled off TV for nine months and I had to travel on the road for nine months and not work. In that nine months I got highly depressed and I attempted suicide.”

On WWE not recognizing Men On A Mission’s Tag Team Championship win: “There were a couple of matches on TV where for example me against Owen Hart that it was mentioned about the tag team championship on TV. I think Ted Dibiase and Stan Lane were doing the commentary and Stan Lane always pushed that and always put that over. It was mentioned a couple of times on TV but it just kind of faded away.”

On the back-story as to why the title win is not addressed: “During the “New Generation” era at the same time Vince McMahon was having the steroid trial. So of course, we were getting drug tested two or three times a week and back then in that era if you failed a drug test and if it was like a steroid or cocaine thing or a narcotic failure of a drug test you immediately got suspended. But, if you failed a drug test, first offense and you had marijuana in your system (THC) you would get fined. Up to a certain point maybe your fifth or sixth violation you were suspended. A member of our team, which will remain nameless loved smoking the wacky-weed, loved it and because they loved it JJ Dillon came to me one day and said “Let’s just say, we put the tag team gold on a particular tag team and we put the titles on you Sunday and then you go to a house show on Monday and fail a drug test and one member of the tag team has to be suspended, why are we going to take a chance or risk of putting the tag team titles on somebody if there is a possibility of one member of the team getting suspended” and that was the hold back right there.”

On taking the hit when your team is under fire: “At some point you’ve got to take responsibility for yourself and you’ve got to tell the truth and the truth is whether it’s Men On A Mission or the Hardy Boyz or the Dudley Boyz or Edge and Christian as a tag team if there is one member that screws up it’s going to effect the whole tag team. That’s why it was on one day and off a couple of days later. It was given because it was deserved but it was taken away at the same time because there was an issue that needed to be resolved. But by the time the issue got resolved all this other stuff had happened with Shawn Michaels. In 94 is when we got the tag belts. It was another tour overseas in 94 when the issue with Shawn Michaels happened and so I’m out for nine months.”

On what kept M.O.M from leaving to go to WCW: “When those nine months are up in 1995 we are at the Royal Rumble and Nelson and I had decided because it was driving me crazy we decide we’re going to leave in January of ’95. I had been on the shelf for nine months and it wasn’t going the way we wanted. The deal to keep us there and not leave was The King of The Ring.”

Check out the complete interview at Podomatic.com.

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WWE lawyers recently attempted to move Cassandra Frazier’s wrongful death lawsuit regarding her late husband, longtime WWE performer Nelson “Big Daddy V” Frazier Jr., to Connecticut.

Nelson Frazier Jr. was employed by WWE from 1994-1995, 1999, 2000 and 2005-2008, and worked under the names Mabel, Viscera and Big Daddy V.

Lawyers noted that Frazier Jr. passed away from a heart attack with contributing causes being linked to morbid obesity and diabetes according to his official death certificate, as well as drugs and alcohol in his system.

WWE also claimed that Cassandra contacted them and said she was destitute, so they sent her a check for $10,000 as an advance on future royalties that would be owed to Nelson Frazier Jr.

In the suit, it was revealed how much Frazier Jr. earned in the aforementioned years that he was employed by WWE. Below are the figures.

1994 – $127,659.15
1995 – $100,648.78
1999 – $159,001.44
2000 – $136,951.85
2005 – $124,252,74
2006 – $152,659.55
2007 – $178,359.64
2008 – $251,223.65

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(Credit: Wrestling Observer Newsletter)

Cassandra Frazier, widow of the late Nelson Frazier Jr., (Big Daddy V, Viscera) has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against WWE on the one-year anniversary of his passing.

The lawsuit states that WWE did not warn its’ performers about concussions or head injuries, and states that the company allowed Frazier to wrestle with pneumonia despite the fact that he suffered from diabetes, an enlarged heart and obesity.

Frazier’s lawsuit plays on similar themes of other lawsuits filed against WWE by the likes of Billy Jack Haynes and Big Vito LoGrasso.

WWE has yet to comment on the lawsuit.

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The following are highlights of a recent VOC Nation interview with former Men On A Mission member Mo:

On Mabel (Nelson Frazier Jr.) as a possible WWE Hall Of Fame inductee: “The one thing that [Nelson Frazier] talked about more than anything in the weeks before he passed, he wanted to be in the Hall of Fame. He felt like looking at the way the business is now, and he felt like, in his heart of hearts, Men on a Mission … had done enough and we had brought so much to the business because … how [of] many acts have spawned off of just the Men on a Mission characters … He really felt like we should be in the Hall of Fame. He would tell me all the time, “Man, if you’ve got anything bad to say about WWE, anything, just please man don’t say it. Keep it to yourself. Don’t say it. We deserve the Hall of Fame.”

On WWE still using the Men On A Mission gimmick: “If you look at 2014 WWE, right now, just about 60% of the gimmicked characters [or] whatever they have on that TV program right now is a take from either Men on a Mission or from Oscar’s character in a sense. Just about everybody’s using some type of rap thing, some type of rap music. Even John Cena comes to the ring rapping. You’ve got the Usos, now, instead of saying “Whoop there it is” they’re saying “U-so, U-so,” you’ve got Ron Killings (R-Truth) instead of going “Whoop there it is” it’s “What’s up? What’s up?.” You know?”

On getting heat because of Oscar: “We met Oscar the same day we flew up to New York and took a limo to Connecticut. We didn’t click because Oscar didn’t know about the wrestling business. He knew everything in the world about the entertainment business but he didn’t know anything about our business. So, in the beginning we had a lot of problems trying to get him to realize “We’re going to get heat for this, we’re going to get heat for that,” and all these different things … He did [get us heat] … Nobody ever knew we (Mo and Mabel) [were] separate [from Oscar].”

Check out the complete interview at VOCNation.com.

The following are highlights of a new interview with former WWE Superstar Oscar, who was part of the “Men On A Mission” tag-team that featured the late Nelson Frazier Jr.:

On Nelson Frazier Jr.’s passing: “For those that don’t know the details: Big Daddy V was getting out of his bathtub and he was feeling really hot. His wife laid him down and got him a cold glass of water and I believe a cold compress. Minutes later he started bleeding from the mouth and he suffered from a heart attack. He literally died in his wife’s arms. His last words were (while looking at his wife Cassandra): ‘I love you very much.'”

On WWE not airing a tribute graphic on RAW after his passing: “I’m very disappointed that there wasn’t even a mention on Elimination Chamber and Raw. I watched the shows and I was hoping they would say something, but they didn’t. I was at a loss as to why they didn’t.”

Check out the complete interview at AngryMarks.com.

There was said to be some negative feelings towards WWE for failing to acknowledge the passing of Nelson Frazier Jr. (aka Mabel, Viscera and Big Daddy V) on television on either the February 21st edition of WWE SmackDown or the February 24th edition of WWE RAW. While WWE did eventually air an “In Memory Of” graphic on the February 28th edition of SmackDown, it was considered somewhat late, especially considering the fact that TNA acknowledged him on February 20th.

As previously reported, Cassandra Frazier, who is Nelson’s widow, was upset wit WWE, likely for failing to mention his name or acknowledge his passing in a timely fashion, but has since apologized, citing the stress of the week. “I lost my best friend and the only man I ever loved, and I was very angry,” said Cassandra. “Please forgive me and also to your fans, he was a good man, and he loved Vince, Stephanie and Triple H.”