WWE News: Carmella legitimately knocks out referee during cash-in attempt on SmackDown Live
What's the story?
On SmackDown Live the Riott Squad attacked SmackDown Live Women's Champion Charlotte, leading to Carmella attempting to cash-in her MITB briefcase. However, Carmella accidentally drop-kicked the referee before the match could get started, so had to abort her attempt. It has now been revealed that the referee actually picked up a legitimate injury during this segment.
In case you didn't know...
Carmella won the first ever Women's Money in the Bank Ladder Match with the help of James Ellsworth and then successfully managed to hold onto the briefcase when a rematch was made as a result of Ellsworth's involvement. She's carried the briefcase for a long time with many concerned the WWE had forgotten about it. Clearly, they haven't.
The heart of the matter
The spot featured the referee trying to hand the briefcase over to get the match started with Charlotte in front of him. Carmella goes to dropkick Charlotte, but she moved out of the way, causing Carmella to hit the referee out of the ring.
However, the referee in question, Danilo Anfibio seems to take the bump quite hard as his head hits the ring apron, seemingly spilling to the floor in an uncontrolled manner. Anfibio took to Twitter to let us know that he was in fact knocked out by the impact.
What's next?
There's always an element of danger when referees are taking bumps as they're not strictly wrestling professionals, although some are ex-wrestlers, like Drake Younger. Luckily it seems that Anfibio will be fine and is set to be back officiating on SmackDown next week.
Author's take
I'm just glad that everyone is okay, getting knocked out in the ring is a serious matter, but luckily this time it seems that no serious harm was caused. Plus the WWE really does have incredibly robust concussion checks so it's arguably one of the best places to be in this situation.