The Personal Injury Attorney in River Ridge, NJ, You Can Trust

Hundreds line up in the frigid cold on Friday to take pictures and get an autograph from wrestling superstar Liv Morgan, a New Jersey native, at Total Wine in River Edge.

Liv Morgan, who's legal name is Gionna Daddio, is the current Women's World Champion for World Wresting Entertainment, also known as WWE. Morgan has been champion for over 200 days.

Morgan hails from Bergen County, growing up in Elmwood Park. Her bio on the WWE website says it has always been her lifelong dream to join the wrestling industry as she played in a makeshift ring that her and her brothers constructed in the backyard in her New Jersey home.

It was a cold day in River Edge, but that did not stop hundreds of die hard fans from bundling up and waiting to meet the wrestler on Friday afternoon.

Father and son, Kenny and Kenny Jr. Feola are diehard wrestling fans who were on line to meet Morgan since 8 a.m. for the 2 p.m. event.

"I've been a wrestling fan for 40 years, him 20," said the father. The River Edge residents said others in front of them had been on the line since 6 a.m.

This is not their first rodeo when it comes to meeting WWE superstars. They recalled meeting the wrestler Edge in 2004 for an autograph signing in New Jersey.

"My favorite memory was probably John Cena's return to the Royal Rumble," said the son. His father's favorite memory was when Cena announced his retirement.

When they are not meeting wrestlers, they are watching them at live events. They last went to "Full Gear," an AEW pay-per-view event at the Prudential Center. They hope to attend Summer Slam which will be hosted at MetLife Stadium in August of 2025.

Others in the back of the line also carried excitement, looking forward to meeting Morgan. Anthony Coppola's love for wrestling goes deep as he says his favorite wrestler of all time is legend Shawn Michaels, other wise known as "HBK" or the Heartbreak Kid.

"It's too hard to pick a favorite moment, there's just too many," said Coppola. The wrestling fan said he is excited to see the wrestling duo the Hardy Boyz when they come to an event in the northeast.

Total Wine would not allow access to the media for photographs of Morgan taking pictures and signing autographs to fans.

The next major wrestling event to take place in New Jersey is WWE's Summer Slam pay-per-view that is set to take place at MetLife Stadium on Aug. 2 and Aug. 3, 2025. Tickets for the show have yet to be released.

The Manhattan Center Hammerstein Ballroom will host AEW's Collision event on Saturday and Sunday Dec. 21 and 22.

The New Jersey Supreme Court upheld a ruling this week justifying a Bergen County yeshiva's firing of a rabbi five years ago for alleged inappropriate conduct.

Wednesday's decision dismisses an appeal by Rabbi Shlomo Hyman, who was let go in 2019 after 31 years of teaching at the Rosenbaum Yeshiva of North Jersey in River Edge. Hyman filed a $10 million defamation lawsuit against the day school that was dismissed in 2021, prompting the rabbi's appeal.

"Judges have no business picking Jewish rabbis or Orthodox priests," said Laura Wolk Slavis, counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which argued the case on behalf of several religious institutions. "The court’s ruling reinforces that common-sense principle, allowing Rosenbaum Yeshiva to choose who passes on its Jewish beliefs to the next generation."

Richard I. Scharlat, Hyman's attorney, could not be reached for comment Thursday afternoon.

The ruling centered on whether Hyman's defamation claims were invalidated by the "ministerial exception" clause outlined in the First Amendment. The legal doctrine requires courts to stay out of employment disputes involving employees holding "certain important positions with churches and other religious institutions."

The six members of the Court who heard the appeal — Justice Rachel Wainer Apter did not participate — were split 3-3 on whether discovery, the ability for each party in a lawsuit to obtain evidence from other parties, was required in the case. As a result, the Court affirmed the ruling of the appellate division, which agreed with the trial court's dismissal of the case on summary judgment without discovery.

Hyman's termination was due to conduct "neither acceptable nor consistent with how a rebbe in our Yeshiva should interact with students," the school wrote in a letter to parents in May 2019. The allegations outlined in the rabbi's lawsuit included touching students' shoulders and backs, placing stickers on their lapels and catching them while falling backward in a game of "trust."

Hyman's lawsuit alleged he was never given a chance to defend himself from the accusations, and that he was let go primarily as a cost-cutting measure. Attorneys for the rabbi have previously stated that the yeshiva never contacted law enforcement about his conduct, indicating there was nothing to report.

The suit also stated that Hyman "became an unemployable pariah" in the close-knit Orthodox community that ostracized his wife and five children as well. One of his daughters was forced to transfer schools, while another allegedly suffered health problems from emotional distress over the situation.

Wolk Slavis argued that religious groups like the Rosenbaum school should not be subject to defamation suits like Hyman's, which would require government officials to scrutinize how they choose to discipline an employee.

"Religious schools should not have to fear being dragged into court when making decisions that seek to protect children in their care," she said. "The Justices ensured that this freedom is upheld for Jews and for people of all faiths across the Garden State."

Hyman has 90 days from Wednesday's ruling to appeal the decision to the United States Supreme Court.