Jackson Free Press

Since the passing of House Bill 2 in North Carolina, several boycotts and event cancellations have hit the state. The latest blow was a major sporting-event cancellation on Thursday, July 21, as the NBA decided to move its 2017 All-Star Game away from Charlotte, N.C.

According to multiple reports, New Orleans is the frontrunner to take the Charlotte Hornets’ spot. The league said in a statement on Thursday that it hopes to reschedule in Charlotte for the 2019 All-Star Game. Los Angeles is already scheduled to host the event in 2018.

"Since March, when North Carolina enacted HB2 and the issue of legal protections for the LGBT community in Charlotte became prominent, the NBA and the Charlotte Hornets have been working diligently to foster constructive dialogue and try to effect positive change,” the statement read. “We have been guided in these discussions by the long-standing core values of our league. These include not only diversity, inclusion, fairness and respect for others, but also the willingness to listen and consider opposing points of view.

"Our weeklong schedule of All-Star events and activities is intended to be a global celebration of basketball, our league and the values for which we stand, and to bring together all members of the NBA community—current and former players, league and team officials, business partners and fans. While we recognize that the NBA cannot choose the law in every city, state and country in which we do business, we do not believe we can successfully host our All-Star festivities in Charlotte in the climate created by HB2.”

Now that the NBA has moved its event, will other sports follow? The impact of the NBA move could have a domino effect with other sports moving or cancelling events.

Atlantic Coast Conference Commissioner John Swofford said his organization, which holds its football championship in Charlotte, will revisit the issue in October.

NASCAR will hold a sprint cup race in Charlotte in May 2017, and the PGA Championship is scheduled to take place there in August of next year. The professional golf organization released a statement on the status of its tournament venue earlier today, July 22.

"Since the Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte is a private facility not subject to all of the provisions of HB2, at the 2017 PGA Championship, we plan to allow spectators to use the restroom that conforms with their gender identity or gender expression,” the statement read. “As we look to future events, our willingness to consider coming back to the State of North Carolina will be severely impacted unless HB2 is overturned."

The NCAA is now sending out questionnaires to potential host cities to ask how they would protect athletes and fans from discrimination. Cities must identify any local anti-discrimination laws in the questionnaires. The NCAA will then review the information to determine if these locations can remain hosts for events.

The questionnaires might not bode well for Greensboro, N.C., or Charlotte, which are already scheduled …

The NFL is trying to settle a concussion lawsuit against it. A concussion lawsuit against the NHL is currently pending.

Now, 53 former wrestlers are suing the WWE over concussions. It really only seemed to be a matter of time before the biggest wrestling organization in America ended up in court.

Some of the lawsuits’ better known plaintiffs are Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka, Paul “Mr. Wonderful” Orndorff and Joseph “Road Warrior Animal” Laurinaitis. Some interesting facts: Snuka was just declared mentally incompetent to stand trial for the murder and manslaughter charges stemming from 1983, Laurinaitis’ brother John still works for the WWE, and Orndorff made an appearance at WrestleMania XXX and on Monday Night Raw in 2014.

James Harris, better known as Kamala, is a Mississippi native and is also named as a plaintiff in the lawsuit. Harris had both his legs amputated due to diabetes in 2014.

The lawsuit alleges that the WWE hid the risk of brain trauma from wrestlers and put profits over the welfare of performers’ health. Attorney Konstantine Kyros, whose name sounds like wrestling heel or bad guy, filed the lawsuit.

Kyros has tried to sue the WWE in the past and has already seen two class-action lawsuits against the Stamford, Conn.-based company dismissed. He also has two wrongful death lawsuits pending against the WWE.

One major obstacle to this lawsuit is if the wrestlers can prove the WWE knew the dangers of concussions and hid them from them. As ESPN’s legal expert Lester Munson points out, do the wrestlers and their lawyers have a “smoking gun” to prove that the WWE knowingly withheld concussion information?

Another hurdle for the wrestlers will be that they were, and still are, considered independent contractors. Unlike the NFL and other sports leagues, wrestlers don’t have a union to represent them.

The current lawsuit addresses the fact that the wrestlers are independent contractors and states that independent contractor is the wrong designation.

Even if the wrestlers get the lawsuit in front of a judge or jury, many of them worked for other organizations. In the days before the WWE became a national company, wrestlers worked for organizations that were territory based.

Several of the wrestlers in this lawsuit started out during the territorial days. In those days, the different territories were under gentleman's agreements, and the National Wrestling Alliance was the governing body.

Nearly all of the wrestlers in the lawsuit wrestled for organizations such as World Championship Wrestling, New Japan Pro Wrestling, Extreme Championship Wrestling, Total NonStop Action and others.

In fact, some wrestlers in the lawsuit spent more time with other organizations than they did with the WWE. The fact that the WWE bought both WCW and ECW might play a part in the lawsuit.

Any wrestler who spent time in ECW might have a hard time proving any health problems they had were suffered in the WWE. The former