A WRESTLING referee was moved out of the way while suffering an apparent seizure as performers continued the show around him.
Official Dallas Edwards was taking part in an Ohio Valley Wrestling event in Kentucky on Thursday when he suffered a medical emergency.
Edwards was taking charge of a tag-team match with the promotion when a scripted spot went awry.
He was caught in a splash from the top rope but hit the canvas heavily, with his head in particular taking a blow as he fell to the floor.
Edwards remained flat on his back and appeared to begin convulsing in the middle of the ring, as the performers continued the match around him.
At one point a wrestler even dragged him out of the centre of the ring and kicked him further out of the way in order to be able to perform the next move.
After nearly a minute of the emergency beginning, the match was eventually stopped as other employees began to render aid to Edwards.
He was then rushed to hospital for assessment and treatment, with his partner subsequently confirming that he was awake following the terrifying ordeal.
She wrote on Facebook: “Dallas is stable and being looked over at the hospital currently. He is awake, coherent and in good spirits.
“All thoughts and prayers are appreciated. He loves all of you a ton and he will check in with you guys himself when he can.”
Fightful.com’s Sean Ross Sapp also shared a statement released by the girlfriend the following day, which confirmed that the referee had suffered a brain injury of some sort but remained under observation.
She wrote: “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.”
OVW released a statement of their own, after coming under fire for the handling of the situation.
They wrote: “Last night during Rise, referee Dallas Edwards – a member of our OVW family – experienced a medical emergency during the broadcast.
“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.
“Dallas is alert and doing much better. We ask everyone to keep him in your thoughts and prayers and respect his and his family’s privacy at this time.
“We wish Dallas a speedy recovery and we can’t wait until he’s back with our OVW family very soon.”
