A violent scene broke out over the weekend at the World Class Revolution “Christmas Star Wars” event in Texas, which resulted in referee Lando Deltoro being hospitalized after being repeatedly stabbed by “Hannibal” Devon Nicholson, wrestling at the show as “The Blood Hunter.”
The original plan for the match between Nicholson and Carly Colon (Carlito) was to have Nicholson attack the referee, but according to a referee who was ringside and wrestlers who have spoken with various news outlets, Nicholson took the spot too far and wound up stabbing the referee multiple times in the head with a spike.
A ringside referee, identified as Colby Cowperthwaite, went into full detail:
“They planned a blade spot but Hannibal took it MUCH further,” wrestler Clayton Bloodstone told Fightful on the record. “I guess the ref’s blade wasn’t working and Hannibal began stabbing him in the head multiple times. The ref went immediately to the hospital. We all thought he was going to die. Many of the guys in the back were very visibly shaken up from it. Hannibal gave zero fucks. He acted like it wasn’t a big deal. He was in his RV pretty much the whole time before his match. The ref that reffed his match believed he was intoxicated and warned Carlito, who was working Hannibal, to be careful and end the match ASAP.”
Deltoro has since posted a photo of himself after being released from the hospital. He tweeted on Sunday, “Recovering at home, still a big fuzzy and pain, yes lots of pain. But I’ll live. Thanks you all for outpouring of love and support. I am a firm believer that if you put good out into the world, good will return to you.”
“I can tell you it was a spot that went way off the rails,” he wrote. “From what I’m hearing now he is not a safe worker. And now I have first-hand knowledge…”
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A GoFundMe has been launched to try and assist Deltoro with his medical expenses.
Nicholson is now claiming the ref was “hired to bleed” and stated he had zero clue he was actually hurting him during the match.
“What happened,” Nicholson said, “this referee was supposed to bleed from razor blade cuts. I assume he actually cut himself with the razor blades.”
“He gave no indication to me — and you people can watch the footage — zero indication to me in the ring that he wasn’t just selling and was legitimately hurt.”
“If he had told me he was getting hurt,” Nicholson said, “I would have stopped.”
Nicholson claims he apologized to Deltoro on Sunday.
“He knows that I didn’t mean to hurt him,” Nicholson said.
