In an update on the trial between CM Punk and Colt Cabana vs. WWE doctor Chris Amann, jury selection in the lawsuit brought by Amann against Punk and Cabana began on Thursday in the Cook County Court in Illinois, according to a report from PWInsider.com.
The report notes that the trial process was originally scheduled to begin on Tuesday morning, but was pushed back for several days due to a new judge taking on the case, as well as some last minute filings by Amann’s side.
For those unfamiliar, Dr. Chris Amann filed a lawsuit in February 2015 in regards to comments made by CM Punk during an appearance on the Art of Wrestling podcast hosted by Cabana in November 2014. During the podcast appearance, Punk broke his post-WWE silence for the first time and discussed his time in the company, as well as the issues that led to his departure, noting that he dealt with health issues during and after his WWE run. Punk stated that a lump on his back was diagnosed as a fat deposit and despite several requests, was not cut out, stating that he later learned, after he left the WWE that the lump was actually a MRSA staph infection and said that a doctor he had never met before immediately diagnosed it and cut the infection out in what he described as the most painful experience in his life. Responding to this in his lawsuit filed, Amann alleged that his reputation as a doctor suffered as a result of Punk’s comments and alleged that everything Punk claimed about his medical care under Amann while working for WWE was false and that the statements repeatedly and falsely impugned the integrity of Amann.
Amann also noted that he was not requested by Brooks to treat and/or excise a lump, let alone a purple, baseball-sized lump and claims that the comments made by Punk and Cabana on the podcase were highly offensive in that they accused Amann of a gross lack of integrity as a medical doctor, an inability to perform his professional duties as a medical doctor and in placing the financial interest of his employer above life-threatening health conditions of his patients. Cabana was included in the lawsuit filing for allegedly helping Punk falsely depict Amann.
Amann is seeking more than $1 million in compensatory damages, as well as an undetermined amount of punitive damages.