Phil “CM Punk” Brooks and Scott “Colt Cabana” Colton were found not guilty in Cook County Court today in a lawsuit brought against them by WWE physician Dr. Chris Amann.
Steven Muehlhausen of Sporting News/Fightful was in attendance and tweeted the result, describing the legal teams for both Punk and Cabana as “crying in joy” over the result.
.@CMPunk and @ColtCabana were found Not Guilty of all charges.
— Steven Muehlhausen (@SMuehlhausenJr) June 5, 2018
.@CMPunk and @ColtCabana and there legal teams crying in joy.
— Steven Muehlhausen (@SMuehlhausenJr) June 5, 2018
The trial, which kicked off last week in Illinois, saw Amann testify on his behalf the criticism he received online after both Punk discussed his departure from WWE on Cabana’s “Art of Wrestling” podcast in 2014. The jury listened to the entire podcast comments by Punk, which featured Punk going into detail about his departure from WWE earlier that year in January and his claims about Amann’s lack of medical care backstage.
Punk claimed during the podcast that Amann had falsely diagnosed a lump that “grew to the size of a baseball” and later turned into a staph infection. He also claimed Amann failed to treat his concussion symptoms saying that he was only prescribed antibiotics as treatment. Amann claims statements made by Brooks and Colton on the podcast were false, defamatory and put him in a false light despite retaining his position with WWE.
Just last week, both Punk and Cabana took the stand to provide testimony over the lump on Punk’s body. Cabana testified to seeing the lump in question, while Punk went in great detail and became emotional discussing the 2014 Royal Rumble event where he reportedly suffered a concussion and was in bad physical shape overall heading into the event. Members of WWE’s production staff also provided testimony about the event.
Muehlhausen reported that Amann was seeking over $7 million in damages from Punk and Cabana. He was described as dropping his head in “utter disappointment” when the jury read the verdict finding both Punk and Cabana not guilty.
Amann’s head dropped in utter disappointment when the verdicts were read.
— Steven Muehlhausen (@SMuehlhausenJr) June 5, 2018
The distraction of the lawsuit has been highlighted by many in the media this week as Punk will make his return to the UFC this Saturday at UFC 225 in Chicago. Punk will be facing Mike Jackson this weekend, who is also 0-1 in his UFC career.