Over the weekend, YouTuber interviewer, personality, and wrestler Hannibal made news for the wrong reasons when he stabbed Texas-based referee Lando Deltoro several times in the head during his match. Now, we find out that the referee was paid $75 before the match to bleed during an attack.
Referee Was Paid $75 for Violent Wrestling Incident
According to an Irving Police Department spokesman, Deltoro agreed to bleed during the match after talking with Hannibal—Devon Nicholson—who wrestled the match under his masked Blood Hunter persona.
Accompanied at ringside by veteran wrestler and former WCW head booker Kevin Sullivan, Hannibal would use a stake—or golden spike as Sullivan normally called it—to stab the referee in a manner similar to how Sullivan stabbed Kintaro “W*ING” Kanemura in Japan.
The main difference between the two incidents is that Kanemura knew what he was getting into as that was his style of wrestling. In discussing the specifics of the deal, Deltoro said that he didn’t agree to the degree of spiking that he received.
“I Haven’t Seen That Much Blood Since Fallujah”
In the attack, Deltoro began gushing blood in the ring, shocking the crowd who were there for a World Class Pro Wrestling show. The show was promoted so that kids 13 and under could attend.
Deltoro, a war veteran told The Daily Beast that apparently, he didn’t cut himself to Nicholson’s liking and the 29-year-old wrestler began jabbing him further with the spike.
“I haven’t seen that much blood since Fallujah,” Deltoro said. “It was scary.” After going into hypovolemic shock, the referee was taken to a hospital where he was received staples for the wounds and had emergency surgery for a severed artery.
Deltoro wouldn’t press charges but several wrestlers including the WWE’s The Miz to be banned from wrestling. New Japan’s Will Ospreay called for Hannibal to be charged for the unsafe stunt and to cover Deltoro’s medical expenses.
In a since-deleted YouTube video, Nicholson said that he thought Deltoro was selling the attack and that the referee didn’t indicate that he was legitimately hurt or in pain. Lando Deltoro took to Twitter in response:
I had heard that I could have said “stop” at anytime. I just wanted to say that’s it’s very hard to talk when there is a 300lbs man’s knee on your back and then being put in a choke hold while being stabbed repeatedly in the head with an iron spike , passed out shortly after
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