The civil defamation trial launched by Dr. Christopher Amann against Phil Brooks a.k.a. CM Punk and Scott Colton a.k.a. Colt Cabana began Tuesday in the Cook County Courthouse in Illinois.
It is a jury trial with Judge Elizabeth Budzinski presiding over the case.
Gregory Pratt of the Chicago Tribune observed a portion of the trial (he was in the courthouse for other business and isn’t covering the trial).
[wp_ad_camp_1]
According to Pratt’s notes, the jury listened to the “Art of Wrestling” podcast interview that Cabana conducted with Punk that was released on Thanksgiving 2014. The day’s proceedings also featured Amann testifying on his behalf with evidence of published reports covering the interview, as well as tweets calling for Amann to be fired by the WWE after the accusation levied by Punk in the interview regarding the lack of adequate treatment he received while with the company.
The trial will continue throughout the week with Cabana announcing he will be unable to appear for Compound Wrestling this Friday because of the trial but is still scheduled for the Ring of Honor event on Saturday at the Manhattan Center.
The lawsuit was filed back in 2015 and it is amazing it has lasted this long. Even more surprising is the timing, given that Punk is scheduled to fight at UFC 225 on Saturday, June 8th and this week would theoretically be his last week of hard training and it seems he will be in court all day throughout this week with no guarantee of how long the trial will last.
