Wrestler Wrestles with WC Fraud Charges as Tattoo Inks Him as Culprit

Yes, workers’ comp fraud is rampant. HRSBT has brought you numerous stories of people continuing to work while out on WC disability—roofers roofing, painters painting, and landscapers mowing lawns. But this one is the winner!

A wrestler out of Akron, Ohio, whose professional name we cannot use in our genteel publication, claimed he could not move due to back pain from the poundings he received in the matches. Both his doctor and the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) declared him unable to perform the physical requirements of his job, and he was put on workers’ comp.

Yes, he was found employed at another job while receiving WC benefits. Talk about hiding in plain sight, the wrestler, Michael Meekins, was spotted working—as a professional wrestler!

Of course, he had not told his doctor or the BWC about his activities. However, tips about Meekins were received by both the BWC and Cleveland’s Fox 8 I-Team, and both organizations sent employees to the identified wrestling venue to catch the culprit in action. See the video report here.

Meekins denied being the wrestler in the video; instead, he said that wrestler was his look-alike wrestler brother (guess he was a fan of the Patty Duke Show). But, unfortunately for him, the I-Team video got a close-up shot of the tattoo on his bicep—one that did not match the tattoo on his brother’s bicep.

So the TV shot of the true tattoo got this wrestler slammed with a BWC fine!