During Thursday’s Ohio Valley Wrestling’s weekly series Rise on YouTube, which took place at the Hotpoint Arena in Louisville, Kentucky, a very horrible incident took place in the ring during the multi-man main involving referee Dallas Edwards.
During the match, OVW Rush Champion Brendan Balling came off the top rope, planning to hit Tony Evans with a flying forearm. However, Evans pulled referee Dallas Edwards in the way and Balling hits Edwards in the head, legitimately knocking him unconscious. Edwards then began to experience a seizer with convulsions, with his arms and legs twitching.
Instead of stopping their match, Balling and Evans continued performing around Edwards, with Evans grabbing Edwards by his pants and rolling him out of the way, then pushed him with his foot. Eventually the match was stopped by OVW officials with the cameras not on Edwards. The commentary team then announced the show was going off the air due to a medical emergency with Edwards.
At this point, someone hit the ring and the match was stopped with cameras kept off Edwards. The promotion then announced they were going off the air due to Edwards’ medical situation.
The incident, which again is disturbing, starts at around the 1:57:26 min mark of the show. Balling starts climbing the ropes just a few seconds before.
The video of the episode is below:
At the time of this writing, OVW has not commented on the incident.
Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp posted a statement on X from Edwards’s girlfriend regarding the incident.
“Please keep Dallas in your thoughts as your day begins. I am not going to provide much more information at this time except to the parties who already know, but last night resulted in a brain injury that is being monitored and will continue to be monitored by doctors here. Seeing all the support you guys have already given is amazing and I didn’t want to leave everyone without some kind of update.”
Source: PWInsider