Two of the three wrestlers, whose lawsuit against World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. ("WWE") was dismissed late last month, have asked a federal court to reconsider the matter and give them another opportunity to plead their case against the WWE.

In a motion to alter/amend the judgment filed late Wednesday (download available here), Scott Levy and Christopher Klucsartis contend that the court should have allowed them to raise claims under the federal law regarding employee benefits (ERISA), after the court made its initial ruling dismissing the matter. They also contend that they should be allowed another opportunity to raise certain state law claims with additional facts.

The wrestlers attach a copy of a proposed amended complaint that they would file, if the court gives them an opportunity to do so and propose that the matter be seen again as a class action claim. The amended complaint has some new details about the extent that the wrestlers contend that the WWE "controlled" their behavior. It’ll be of interest to wrestling fans to see what allegedly happens "behind the scenes". 

As followers of this story will recall, there were originally three wrestlers who brought suit against the WWE, with Michael Sanders being the third. He is apparently not involved in this latest request and the proposed amended complaint drops him as a named plaintiff.  The materials submitted by the two remaining wrestlers are silent as to the reasons why Mr. Sanders has decided not to pursue this matter further at this time.

Even if these claims were allowed to proceed, WWE has previously argued that the claims (even if amended) are barred by a statute of limitations.  I would suspect that the WWE will argue that the amendments here would be futile because the claims would ultimately be dismissed. 

WWE will have until the end of March to respond to this latest motion and a decision from the court can be expected no earlier than mid April 2009.