A referee was knocked unconscious and suffered a brain injury during OVW’s weekly series Rise on Thursday night in Louisville, Kentucky.
During the multi-man main event, OVW Rush Champion Brendan Balling came off the top rope going for a flying forearm on heel Tony Evans. Evans pulled referee Dallas Edwards into the path of the move, and Balling connected with Edwards, who struck his head on the mat and was knocked out. Edwards’ body began seizing and going into convulsions.
Balling and Evans continued performing around Edwards as his arms and legs were twitching on the mat. Evans then grabbed Edwards by his pants and rolled him over, using his foot to push him further away from the other talent. The incident can be seen below.
At that point, someone entered the ring, and the match was stopped. Cameras were kept off Edwards, and OVW announced they were going off the air due to his medical situation.
I just watched the referee having a seizure in OVW, and its fucking horrible. These idiots just wrestle around him, and then as he's stiff and shaking, one of the clowns just drags him out the way. One of the worst things I've seen in wrestling, and that is saying something pic.twitter.com/PvJ7Oy7Hlm
— swerve (@swerve383658) March 13, 2026
Edwards’ girlfriend issued a statement, which was shared by Fightful.com’s Sean Ross Sapp:
“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.”
Referee Dallas Edwards' girlfriend issued the following comment after his scary spot on OVW this week:
"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…
— Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com (@SeanRossSapp) March 13, 2026
St. Louis Anarchy also addressed the incident on Twitter.
Last night one of our referees @refdally suffered a medical episode during a match at another promotion. Dallas is a class act person and professional. Always willing to go the extra mile to make whatever event he's on better.
I wish the people who's safety he looked out… pic.twitter.com/hgNDr1nciJ
— St. Louis Anarchy (@stlanarchy) March 13, 2026
OVW, which holds trade school certification in Kentucky and is overseen by Al Snow, has not yet commented on the incident.
