Referee praised for deciding to remove injured WWE Superstar from main event match
There was a major scare at the recent Worlds Collide 2020 event in which Imperium defeated the Undisputed Era in the main event.
Alexander Wolfe was knocked out early in the match after getting hit in the chin with a combination kick from Roderick Strong and Bobby Fish.
Referee Drake Wuertz stepped in and checked on the Superstar before making the call to take him out of the match. Wolfe was helped on his way backstage, where he was examined by the WWE medical team and he didn't return to complete the match.
On the latest Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer praised Drake Wuertz for his work in ensuring that Wolfe's safety was of utmost priority. The example of Molly Holly possibly getting hurt during the Women's Royal Rumble match was brought up.
The returning 2-time Women's Champion reportedly attempted a flip neck breaker, landed on her head and hurt herself in the process. She didn't do much after the spot and was inactive in the ring for a substantial amount of time before being eliminated by Bianca Belair.
Holly was in the match for 10 minutes, however, the ringside referees didn't even try to get her out of the ring after she suffered the knock.
This was in stark contrast to what Drake Wuertz did the previous night as he took no chances with Wolfe and threw up the X sign. The seven remaining men in the match should be given props for spontaneously altering the original plans while still managing to put on an exceptional match.
Wolfe posted a tweet hours after the event and thanked the referee and the medics for taking good care of him.
Meltzer had the following to say:
So we should praise, we really need to praise Drake Wuertz for the work that he did last night because so many times, whether, for whatever reason, it's either WWE or New Japan because AEW just hasn't had this situation yet.
But when you see a guy who is knocked out or is injured or whatever and he's clearly knocked out and he clearly needs medical attention and the referee's just standing there and keeps the match going and just ignore it and it's terrible. And Drake Wuertz, when Alexander Wolfe got hurt, he jumped in there, I mean, he immediately called for the X, got that guy out of the ring.
Yeah, it messed up their entire match, they ended up having a phenomenal match anyway, but the whole point is that they had a match that was laid out and Alexander Wolfe probably had all kinds of spots that were planned to do and he probably, and he even said it himself, he could have laid there for about a minute or and would have regained bearing and would have been able to go on.
I know it would have been the wrong thing to do, but he could have done it, and I think history has shown us that most referees, unfortunately, would not have made the gutsy call, especially if this was a house show then it's one thing, but this is like on a major show, to go in there and say, 'No, safety first', which is a thing you always say but you don't always do. But I just wanted to praise Drake because he deserves it because he made that call at the very beginning of a 30-minute match, a scheduled 30-minute match on a PPV, that safety is first and I wish every referee would do that.
You know with AJ, AJ made the call himself, he knew he was hurt and he was like 'just get me out of here'. But Molly Holly was just there.
Pro wrestling certainly needs more referees like Wuertz.