WrestleMania 38 pyro lawsuit dismissed

The fan lawsuit related to WWE WrestleMania 38 was dismissed on Tuesday.

As noted back in February, a man named Marvin Jackson filed the lawsuit against WWE on January 12 before the District Court of Tarrant County, Texas, alleging that he lost hearing in his left ear while an “invitee” at WrestleMania 38 from AT& Stadium in Dallas in 2022, due to a pyrotechnics blast that was part of the WWE production. Jackson was requesting a jury trial, and monetary relief of more than $1 million, including damages of any kind, penalties, costs, expenses, prejudgment interest, and attorney’s fees. WWE filed a request on February 17 to have the lawsuit moved to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Fort Worth Division.

In an update, U.S. District Judge Mark T. Pittman dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice, siding with WWE’s request from February that the plaintiff’s claim should be moved to arbitration.

The judge made his nine-page ruling due to the terms & conditions agreed to as part of admission to the WrestleMania 38 event.

Jackson attended WrestleMania 38 with his nephew, Ashton Mott, who bought the tickets for his uncle as a surprise birthday gift. Mott used his phone to make the purchase, and accepted multiple acknowledgements that agreed certain disputes with released parties, including WWE, must be settled through arbitration. Judge Pittman ruled that Mott’s consent to those agreements can bind Jackson, even though Jackson had no notice of those agreements.

Pittman wrote, “The answer is a resounding ‘Yes!,'” as his answer to whether or not Jackson could be bound to the terms of admission to the event. Wrestlenomics adds that Judge Pittman cited case law in his ruling, including one case that stated, “It is not necessary that [a ticket user] have actual knowledge of such conditions or limitations or that [their] attention be called to them. Moreover, it is well established that [a ticket user] has accepted a ticket and received notice of its contents even though a [ ] companion receives and holds the [user’s] ticket.”

Jackson’s attorneys had asked for an oral hearing to argue their case before the court, but the request was denied.

The lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice, which means Jackson cannot bring the claim back in front of the same court. Jackson will have to now enter arbitration with WWE in order to try and gain some sort of legal resolution.