OVW Match Ends After Referee Suffers Seizure And Brain Injury
A very serious situation happened during a match at an OVW Rise event.
Ohio Valley Wrestling used to be home to WWE’s developmental talent, but over the years, it has undergone changes.
Former WWE superstar Al Snow has owned the promotion and run its day-to-day operations for many years, while wrestlers go to OVW to develop their skills in hopes of major success in the future.
OVW runs its Rise TV tapings on Thursdays, and it airs on YouTube. Unfortunately, at the March 12th event in Louisville, Kentucky, a referee suffered a very serious health issue during a match that put a halt to what was supposed to be a fun event for everybody involved.
During a match, OVW Rush Champion Brendan Balling came off the top rope with a flying forearm for his opponent, Tony Evans. However, the heel Evans pulled referee Dallas Edwards into the path of the move, and Balling connected with Edwards. Unfortunately, Evans hit his head on the mat and was knocked out. Edwards had a seizure, and his body was convulsing while the wrestlers continued with the match.
After Edwards was obviously in a scary situation, he was pushed out of the way, and eventually, the match was stopped. The show went off the air while Edwards received medical attention.
Dallas Edwards’ girlfriend shared this message with Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful:
“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.”
Wrestler Beef/Gnarls Garvin is a close friend of Dallas Edwards and wrote about it on Facebook, expressing his disappointment with the situation.
“This is a very serious post from me. Dallas Edwards is one of my best friends in this world. I spend time with him almost every single day. What happened last night at OVW Wrestling was and is complete total negligence and 100 % avoidable.
I am beyond anger right now and everyone involved with not helping him while having a seizure, needs to burn their boots or go back to training day one.
Accidents happen, what we do is very dangerous. I am very ashamed in all of the wrestlers who didn’t put safety first of all involved. Say a prayer for Dallas today.”
OVW Issues Statement About Referee Dallas Edwards
On March 14th, OVW posted on social media that Dallas Edwards is “alert and doing much better,” which is obviously a good thing.
”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 will provide an update as soon as it is avaliable, but in the meantime, we wish Dallas a speedy recovery and we can’t wait until he’s back with our OVW family very soon.”
— OVW Wrestling (@ovwrestling) March 13, 2026
OVW turned off the comments on the post as well, which has upset fans.
Rather than posting the video, here is the link to the video on X; it will open in a new window if you choose to watch it. However, be warned that it is a tough thing to watch.
Everybody here at TJRWrestling sends our condolences to referee Dallas Edwards and his loved ones. We hope he can get through this difficult situation.