Referee Dallas Edwards suffered a “medical emergency” after he slammed into the mat during an Ohio Valley Wrestling event on Thursday when someone from the top rope collided with him.
Edwards, who OVW said in a statement Friday is “alert and doing much better,” started convulsing on the mat as the match continued around him in a disturbing scene, with wrestler Tony Evans even dragging him to the side at one point.
“Last night during Rise, referee Dallas Edwards — a member of our OVW family — experienced a medical emergency during the broadcast,” the wrestling promotion said in a statement Friday. “OVW takes the health and well-being of all our performers extremely seriously, and as a company, we are all distraught to see an injury to one of our own.”
As the moment unfolded, announcers from the broadcast still didn’t realize what was happening.
Brendan Balling had climbed up to the top rope, and as he made his jump, Evans appeared to pull Edwards toward Balling’s landing spot — scampering out of the way as Balling made contact with Edwards and then Edwards crumbled on the mat.
“Check out Dallas,” one broadcaster said.
“Dallas is not having a good night here tonight,” another broadcaster added.
But eventually, after the wrestling stopped and the camera remained stationary and away from Edwards, their tone shifted, and they acknowledged that Edwards was “having a medical situation” and stopped the broadcast.
“Well, ladies and gentlemen, we have a medical situation obviously taking place in the ring right now,” a broadcaster said. “Obviously, things kind of happened, so for the safety of our performers, we’re gonna stop down here, and I’ll tell you what — we’ll see you Sunday, March Mayhem. We’re gonna go ahead and go off the air at this point. Thank you for tuning in. We’ll see you Sunday. Thanks for tuning in tonight.”
OVW promoter Al Snow, most known for his WWE stint from 1995 until 2008, made an ill-timed joke on social media that received backlash from wrestling fans, noting his past criticism of All Elite Wrestling being unsafe.
OVW is perhaps most known for its affiliation with the WWE from 2000 to 2008, where they were the company’s primary developmental territory.
Through OVW, the WWE developed future stars like Brock Lesnar, Randy Orton, Batista, CM Punk and many others.
The WWE and OVW parted ways in February of 2008, where the former then pivoted to placing talent on their FCW developmental territory in Florida, which was then rebranded into what evolved into the modern-day version of NXT.
At one point during the incident, after the camera panned away from Edwards and toward the side of the mat, the crowd in attendance started cheering for the referee.
OVW is scheduled to resume wrestling Sunday with March Mayhem at Hotpoint Davis Arena in Louisville.
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