A hearing was held last month in the lawsuit filed by a fan over hearing damage sustained at a 2022 Smackdown taping. As reported in May, the company was hit with the lawsuit from Richard Bryant, who alleges that he suffered injuries from a July 2022 taping in Orlando, Florida. The judge in the case presided over a hearing on September 17th according to PWINsider, in which arguments were made in regard to WWE’s attempts to move the lawsuit to arbitration and Bryant’s opposition to such a move. The judge said in the end that he was considering both arguments and would issue a ruling later.
Bryant filed his opposition to WWE’s attempt to move the lawsuit to arbitration in July. WWE’s argument is that the situation is covered by Ticketmaster’s terms and conditions. Those terms and conditions state that any issues arising from events would result in arbitration. WWE argued that they haven’t waived their right to arbitration, while Bryant argues that because a ticket was gifted by a friend who never had physical possession, he should not be held under the arbitration agreement and didn’t have “reasonable notice” of such agreement.
Bryant is seeking $15,000 in damages and accused WWE of negligence and carelessness, claiming that they did not “adequately warn of the dangers of pyrotechnics, failed to test the effect of pyrotechnics on the premises, failed to operate the pyrotechnics with reasonable care, failed to hire, select, train and supervise reasonably competent employees, failed to implement and enforce reasonable policies and procedures for the safe use of pyrotechnics, failed to use ordinary care in the administration of pyrotechnics, failed to warn Plaintiff of the potential effects of use of pyrotechnics, any and all other acts determined to be negligent or grossly by the tier of fact.”
Bryant also claims that some of his injuries, which include include “traumatic rupture of his right ear drum, bilateral tinnitus, hearing loss in his right ear, psychological harm,” may be permanent and has had medical expenses for treatment, with more such expenses likely.
