The fighters continued battling as the injured ref was spotted unconscious and ‘convulsing’ on the floor in a brutal video circulating on social media
A referee was left unconscious and ‘convulsing on the floor’ after he was accidentally struck as he managed a brutal wrestling match.
The man, named as Dallas Edwards, was rushed to hospital and suffered brain injuries when one of the wrestlers used him as a human shield during a terrifying move. The incident happened in Kentucky, America on Thursday, March 12, and saw the engrossed fighters not even realise they had badly injured the ref, and instead carrying on brawling in the ring next to his lifeless body.
The incident happened during a ‘four corners of chaos’ ring match during the brawl between two well known fighters in the area – Brendan Balling and Tony Evans.
Balling made his way up to the top rope of the ring, ready to slam his whole body into his opponent with a move.
But Evans saw it coming and went into survival mode – grabbing the unsuspecting ref and pushing him into Balling’s path instead, sending him crashing to the mat.
The ref hit his head hard, and wasn’t expecting the blow.
He stayed down as the fighting pair cast a brief glance his way, before continuing their man on man attack.
Balling briefly checked on him, but instead of the match stopping, the men quickly drew their attention back to each other and continued.
Edwards remained down, and at one point, started convulsing.
At one point, Evans dragged Edwards toward the corner to get him out of the way. The match was stopped shortly after and medics were called in.
A woman identified as Edwards’ girlfriend took to Facebook to provide a health update, saying he was “stable” and being monitored in the hospital.
“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.”
Balling, the wrestler involved in the spot, called Edwards “one of the best guys I’ve been able to meet during my time at Ohio Valley Wrestling.”
“Obvious accident, but can’t help but feel horrible about everything. Dallas will be back and better than ever and so will I.”
Organisers confirmed the incident would not be putting a spanner in the works of the number of fights on the cards in the coming days, with all the fights this coming weekend still slated to go ahead.