A Cook County sheriff’s officer who was working security at Monday Night Raw in July is suing Montez Ford and WWE, saying Ford’s entrance lap dance was unscripted, unwanted, and has followed him ever since.
That is the moment, from the July 6 episode of Raw at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois. The Street Profits were making their entrance through the crowd when Ford stopped in front of Noel Lucas, a sheriff’s officer working an extra security shift, seated at his assigned post by the ring.
According to the lawsuit, Lucas was told to stay in that seat. He says he never agreed to be part of the show and had no idea a wrestler was about to perform on him. The complaint, quoting via the Chicago Sun-Times, says Ford “approached him without warning, straddled him, and began repeatedly thrusting and gyrating his hips toward him in a sexually suggestive manner.”
“Defendant Crawford then began performing a sexually provocative dance immediately in front of and over Plaintiff, repeatedly thrusting and gyrating his hips and pelvis towards Plaintiff, performing a sexualized ‘lap dance.'”
The dance aired live on Netflix. Then, the suit says, WWE posted the clip to its TikTok and Instagram, where it pulled more than 300,000 views, and Ford posted the footage himself. Lucas says coworkers recognized him the next day and mocked him by copying the dance, that his children were ridiculed at school over it, and that the Raw announcers joked about him on the broadcast, including, per the complaint, “That guy clearly hates fun.” Netflix has since cut the moment from the episode. The clip is still everywhere.
Lucas filed the suit on October 14 in Cook County Circuit Court against Ford, whose legal name is Kenneth Crawford, WWE, and its subsidiary Event Services, LLC. It carries 14 counts, including assault, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and claims under the Illinois Gender Violence Act and the Illinois Right of Publicity Act. He is seeking unspecified and punitive damages, his legal fees, and a court order barring WWE and Ford from using his likeness. A case management hearing is set for December 10.
WWE has not publicly responded, and no court has ruled that Ford or the company did anything wrong. Ford and Dawkins have been off WWE television for a while now. Thanks to a 26-second dance, that is not keeping Ford out of the conversation.
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