OVW referee Dallas Edwards suffers terrifying medical emergency after wrestling match accident
A referee at an independent wrestling match is reportedly dealing with a “brain injury” after an in-ring accident caused a terrifying scene at an OVW show in Louisville, Kentucky, on Thursday.
Referee Dallas Edwards was seen suffering serious head trauma and seizure-like symptoms after wrestler Brendan Balling was accidentally hit in the head during his match against Tony Evans. In a frightening scene captured on video, Edwards falls hard to the floor and hits the back of his head on the mat after taking the brunt of Balling’s rope maneuver. Balling immediately checks on Edwards and the match then continues around the fallen referee, but after a few moments Edwards appears to start convulsing inside the ring.
Advertising
He is then dragged and kicked into the corner by Evans before the seriousness of the situation becomes apparent to the performers and the show is stopped with medical personnel attending to Edwards.
A woman identified as Edwards’ girlfriend released a statement Friday morning saying Edwards had been hospitalized and asked the wrestling community to “keep Dallas in mind.” Edwards was reportedly “alert, coherent and in good spirits.” A photo was published of Edwards smiling in his hospital bed, giving his thumbs up.
“Please keep Dallas in mind as your day begins. I won’t give away too much information at this time other than those who know, but last night resulted in a brain injury that has been and will continue to be monitored by doctors here.”
“It’s great to see your support so far and I didn’t want to deprive everyone of some kind of update.”
In a follow-up post on Facebook, Balling called Edwards “one of the best referees I’ve ever had” and said he felt “terrible” about the botched maneuver that led to Edwards being hospitalised.
(Brendan Balling, Facebook)
All prayers to Dallas. Not only is he one of the best referees I’ve ever had, but he’s also one of the nicest guys I’ve been able to meet during my time in OVW. It’s clearly an accident, but I can’t help but feel bad about the whole thing. Dallas will be back and better than ever, and so will I. Thank you everyone. See you on Sunday.
OVW, short for Ohio Valley Wrestling, is a long-running independent wrestling company based in Louisville and founded in 1993. The company is known for serving as WWE’s primary developmental territory from 2000-08. It currently serves as TNA Wrestling’s developmental territory.
