Fans in attendance for an RWA wrestling event in High Point, North Carolina witnessed a disturbing scene during the show. Veteran professional wrestler Brad Anderson decided to shoot on his younger and lesser experienced opponent, Jacob Ryan, during their match.
Check out the assault here:
https://twitter.com/MattKoonTE/status/1127945674425761794
Matt Koon, who was in attendance for the show as he was on commentary, posted the following on Twitter:
True Story: At the show today, Brad Anderson (son of Gene) “Shot” on the kid he was wrestling, started beating him up for real, then was choking him out, and the other wrestlers had to intervene and insisted on Anderson leaving the premises. @mitchellpwtorch was there.
The kid wasn’t expecting it, nor should he have. This was apparently a “receipt” for an angle last month that involved Brad Anderson’s son. Every wrestler was outraged, and everyone in the audience was shocked. Again, not an angle. This dude tried to seriously hurt him. For real.
RWA Promoter Julian Strauss issued a statement regarding the matter on his Facebook page. It reads as follows:
IMPORTANT: As many of you may know there was an incident that occurred during the RWA event tonight. I hate to even address it publicly but so many untrue rumors are going around. First, we apologize to the fans, to the talent and to Jacob Ryan for the situation. The first rule of the squared circle is to protect your opponent. Whether you like them or not. Whether there is heat or not.
Friend or foe, doesn’t matter in the ring. Sadly, an incident happened tonight that crossed that line. But, to shoot down these rumors, Jacob Ryan will be ok. No one is seriously hurt. No one from RWA approved this type of situation. What was supposed to be a realistic looking battle of generations went way too far and crossed many lines. It was unacceptable. It went too far and nothing like this will ever be allowed to happen again.
The person who did this should never be allowed back in a ring, anywhere, ever. This is just beyond sickening! We do not want to dwell on this matter. But wanted to let everyone know that we apologize, everyone is ok, and we will be addressing how to make the needed changes with security going forward. Thank you for 3 years of supporting RWA and we apologize for this incident.
The incident was described as a crazy scene, but Jacob Ryan and the other wrestlers continued to act professionally even after Anderson lost his cool. It was said that the rest of the locker room placed full blame on Anderson for the incident, and he was removed from the venue after going backstage.
In addition, “White Mike” of the GymNasties, who was at the event, posted the following video on Facebook in response to the incident.