CM Punk wins defamation lawsuit against WWE doctor days ahead of UFC 225
Phillip Brooks, better known as CM Punk, has won defamation lawsuit filed against him and Colt Cabana by WWE Dr. Chris Amann, who claimed the pair “defamed him” in a 2014 podcast.
According to MMAFighting.com, Amann and his attorneys had asked for nearly $4 million in damages — or $1 for everyone who had listened to the podcast. The news comes just days before Brooks is scheduled compete in UFC 225 on Saturday.
CM Punk has just won his civil lawsuit against WWE Dr. Chris Amann. He was in court all morning here in Chicago. Hugging his wife and crying in the courthouse. All this, four days before UFC 225.
— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) June 5, 2018
The WWE doctor had been seeking in excess of $1 million, claiming CM Punk and Colt Cabana defamed him during a podcast in 2014.
— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) June 5, 2018
Amann first filed the lawsuit in 2015, just months after Punk and Cabana were on the Art of Wrestling podcast in November 2014.
Punk spoke about his medical issues and treatments on the podcast, particularly about a lump on his butt that he believed was a staph infection, before he left WWE. Punk repeatedly expressed his displeasure with the WWE medical staff and claimed that Amann never properly treated the lump, though Amann claims he never saw it. The lump was diagnosed by a physician’s assistant, and labeled it as a possible staph infection, though it was never tested to confirm.
Though Amann was mentioned by name only twice on the podcast, the doctor argued that he suffered emotional distress after the podcast aired, testifying that he received “negative catcalls at wrestling matches” and “negative tweets.”
From MMAFighting.com:
While WWE itself was not involved in the case, WWE personnel backed up Amann in the trial. Punk had claimed all along that WWE was funding the case, trying to bleed him dry financially after an acrimonious split in January 2014. WWE never confirmed that they were funding the case, but never denied it when asked.
The case did not go well for WWE because testimony indicated that Amann had given Punk antibiotics on occasions that he never logged in his medical records. Worse, in the 2014 Royal Rumble, Amann, who was at ringside, told people backstage that he believed Punk suffered a concussion early in the match after Punk took a clothesline from Kofi Kingston and complained to him.
Punk will take on Mike Jackson at UFC 225 on Saturday at the United Center in Chicago, making his return to the Octagon almost two years after his MMA debut at UFC 203. Punk lasted only two minutes and 14 seconds into the first round at UFC 203, losing by submission.
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