As noted earlier, WWE’s Dr. Chris Amann filed a defamation lawsuit against CM Punk and Colt Cabana today for comments made during their Art of Wrestling podcast made back during Thanksgiving weekend. Amann is seeking more than $1 million in compensatory damages as well as an undetermined amount of punitive damages. He claims the statements made by Punk and Cabana were false, defamatory and put him in a false light by insinuating a lack of “integrity … and/or inability or lack of competence to perform his professional duties as a medical doctor.”
Amann’s suit includes a detailed transcript from the podcast. The suit also points out that the podcast has been streamed more than 1 million times on YouTube and more than 10,000 times on SoundCloud, in addition to downloads on other platforms.
Punk claimed on the podcast that Amann misdiagnosed a growth on his back as a fatty deposit and disregarded requests to remove it, then said he later found out from another doctor that it was a full-blown MRSA staph infection. The lawsuit says “Amann was not requested by Brooks to treat and/or excise a lump, let a lone a purple, baseball-sized lump,” also alleging that Punk never sought treatment for or showed Amann a lump and that Amann never prescribed Punk antibiotics for a lump or concussion.
Punk claimed that Amann once prescribed him antibiotics for a concussion and said he didn’t know how to treat a concussion. Punk also claimed that during the Royal Rumble last year, he motioned to Amann that he had a concussion but Amann brushed it off. Amann says he followed proper protocol by advising Punk to leave the ring after a preliminary diagnosis of a possible concussion. Amann says he even requested that Punk undergo further evaluation and treatment in the training room backstage.
Amann is being represented by Phillip J. Zisook and Brian D. Saucier of Deutsch, Levy & Engel in Chicago. The lawsuit wasn’t filed until today so it’s likely that Punk and Cabana weren’t served yet.
