Judge Lets WWE 'Ring Boys' Abuse Lawsuit Proceed
The Facts
- A federal judge Monday denied a bid by WWE, TKO and former executives Vince and Linda McMahon to dismiss a lawsuit alleging teenage "ring boys" were abused in the 1980s and 1990s, rejecting their constitutional challenge to a Maryland law.
- U.S. District Judge James Bredar found the Maryland Child Victims Act of 2023, which revived time-barred claims, did not violate the 14th Amendment's due process clause or the Constitution's ex post facto ban because the law is civil, not punitive.
- In a 26-page opinion, Bredar wrote that the Maryland law addressed barriers child sex abuse victims face in court and that plaintiffs can produce "material facts to contest, documents to dispute, and witnesses to cross-examine."
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The Spin
Narrative A
This ruling is a major win for survivors. Statutes of limitations were never meant to hand institutions a permanent shield just because frightened kids stayed silent for decades, so reviving these claims restores a remedy that fear, shame and adult pressure quietly erased. Records, witnesses and cross-examination remain available to the defense, so the due process alarm hardly justifies denying survivors their day in court.
Narrative B
Dropping a decades-old dispute into Maryland mainly because its revival law is the friendliest option is forum shopping, and jurisdiction never becomes optional just because the clock ran out everywhere else. Connections to a state have to be genuine, not retrofitted after the fact. Pinning 1980s conduct on corporate entities formed much later demands real proof of successor liability, not labels.
Public Figures
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