Hannibal Comments On Violent Stabbing Of Referee Lando DelToro

After a week of criticism, calls for him to be charged and one video statement later made private on YouTube, Canadian pro wrestler Hannibal posted another YouTube video (this time public) to address the incident at World Class Pro Wrestling's Irvin, Texas show last week where he stabbed referee Lando Deltoro several times in the head with a metal spike.

The ten-minute video began with some backstory from Hannibal, including claims from Hannibal that the promotion hadn't paid him for behind-the-scenes work. He was also sure to note that he wore glasses outside of the ring, wrestled in a mask with black mesh around the eyes, and that the angle with the referee came together because his opponent, former WWE star Carlito, didn't want to bleed during this match.

"I want to address an unfortunate wrestling accident that happened in Texas about a week ago now," Hannibal began. "There's a lot of false stories with inaccurate information out there, and I'm going to tell you what happened, my account of what happened. First of all, it was going to be a match between Bloodhunter (Hannibal) vs. Carlito for World-Class Pro Wrestling. They are not a circuit. They have put on about two events in the past 2.5 years. I was involved in the production of their last two events and I've been doing volunteer work for them for a while now and getting some sort of YouTube revenue split from them as well, for the work I was doing for them on YouTube. However, it didn't amount to much and they actually didn't pay me the last payment they owed me from that.

"But there was going to be a match between Bloodhunter vs. Carlito. Bloodhunter is me, wearing this mask with the mesh over the eyes. Yes, I wear glasses, and yes I wrestle in a mask with mesh over the eyes. Carlito did not want to bleed in this match. They wanted heel heat for this match. So we wanted to do an angle at the end of the match where Kevin Sullivan, who is known for having a golden spike, who was managing me that night along with Blaze, who is also my girlfriend, we're going to come to the ring after the match, Kevin Sullivan and Andrew Andrewson, and pass me this golden spike to use on the wrestler."

Continuing on, Hannibal further claimed that World Class was not only aware of the angle and had approved of it, but that he hired Deltoro himself for this spot, a claim Hannibal has made throughout the week. Showing emails and text messages to prove the exchange, as well as a quote from Deltoro from an interview with the Daily Beast, Hannibal also speculated that Deltoro indeed took aspirin and a shot of whiskey before the match to bleed more, though he admitted to not seeing the referee do either.

"The World Class Wrestling office was aware of this angle and they had approved it," Hannibal claimed. "And I did find a referee myself. Here's a conversation I had with a referee before the show where he said he had bled before the hard way. The hard way is not blading with razor blade cuts, but actually bleeding from direct trauma from the head. He was okay with the angle. He was going to cut himself with razor blades in the match when the match ended. He was not supposed to referee the actual match, or any other matches on the show that evening at all. The World-Class Pro Wrestling owner had said he wasn't aware of this angle. But here's a message of me telling the World Class Wrestling owner that the referee was going to come down at the end, and he actually makes a joke that he hopes I'm not paying him much.

"They put this match on before intermission with me vs. Carlito because they expected the referee to get a lot of blood. He said he was going to get good color, and he actually told my girlfriend before the match that he was going to get a really good color too. And he told the Daily Beast, an actual quote here 'a proper blading requires three things. Aspirin, preferably a shot of whiskey to thin your blood, and you also need to sweat.' So if he believes whiskey and aspirin help thin your blood to make you bleed more, I didn't see him take a shot of whiskey or aspirin before the match, but I'm going to assume he must have to get the blood flowing better."

Ultimately Hannibal would stab Deltoro several times and wound up tearing an artery in Deltoro's head, sending the referee to the hospital. In this video, Hannibal would claim to have been unaware that anything was amiss, saying he wasn't aware the spike he was using was sharp and because Deltoro never told him to stop or threw up an X sign, he thought Deltoro was selling. Hannibal also noted that no one else at ringside reacted either, which to him signaled that nothing was wrong.

"I just want to be clear here, I wasn't supposed to hurt him with the spike," Hannibal said. "I had the spike in my hand. The main part of it was on top of the hand, and I did not realize anything was poking out of the bottom. I didn't think I was stabbing him either. He's selling here, he's not telling me to stop, he's not putting up an X. To me, he looks like he's selling. Nobody on the outside seems that concerned about his well-being here, because that is exactly what was supposed to happen in the ring. If something goes wrong in the ring, the people on the outside should be putting up an X saying to stop. It was already predetermined that Blaze was going to come in the ring and pull me off, but there were also supposed to be referees and announcers trying to pull me off that whole time, and they didn't. They didn't go in the ring, and I don't know where Kevin Sullivan was during that whole mess. He probably went to the back with Andrew Andrewson and Carlito, as was planned.

"After this, it was scheduled that I was supposed to attack the announcer. As you can see, they go along with what's scheduled. They don't put up an X, there's the fake belt to the back. Nobody's running through the back to help the referee, everyone's just going along with the script here. Here I am, as scripted, going after the announcer. Nobody's telling me 'just go to the back. Something fake is coming.' Here comes help from the back, but they're not working on the referee. They're working the angle that was planned here. Everyone is all on me. They're not putting up X's, telling me that 'this guy is hurt, just go to the back and let us work on him.' They're doing the angle. So I had no idea that anything unusual had happened until I had got in the back."

Later, Hannibal claimed that if he had known Deltoro was more hurt than he was, he would've gone to the back. He then lack visibility, due to him not wearing glasses and wearing a mask, from keeping him from seeing the severity of the situation. He also noted that he thought Deltoro's mass bleeding was due to blading, not from Hannibal stabbing him.

"Had I known that he was getting more hurt than his blade marks, I would've gone to the back," Hannibal stated. "When you normally wear glasses and the guy's supposed to bleed already, and he's not telling you you're stiffing him, and you have a mask on with mesh and you feel the blood, you just assume it's coming from his blade job."

As the video continued, Hannibal continued to provide messages and emails of conversations he had with both World-Class CEO Jerry Bostic and Deltoro. Here Hannibal claimed he had in fact helped pay for Deltoro's medical expenses and that Deltoro later asked for more money, while also stating it was strange that Deltoro's GoFundMe page was asking for $10,000.

"I feel a lot of the heat was put on me for this," Hannibal said. "From my understanding, the company didn't have insurance, liability insurance, which I always personally get for my events. They didn't seem to have paramedics on site. And I did talk to the referee as well after, where I told him I had seen the hard camera footage and he told me he didn't hold any grudge toward me. I apologized and he said 's**t happens' and I thanked him for the situation. And he also said he wanted $200 to cover his medical expenses. I later gave him another $500 above the $200. I know he had more medical issues and I don't know what he has covered by insurance and what he doesn't.

"But I do find it strange that his initial ask was only for $200 and then his GoFundMe was for $10,000. I'm not saying he didn't have that many deductibles, and it's a horrible thing that happened. But at some point, the World Class Pro Wrestling owner, the next day was acting like I was refusing to pay anything towards his medical costs. But he had only told me he needed $200, which I forwarded to him. So I wasn't refusing to pay anything. I think there was a lot of miscommunication in this situation."

As of this writing, Deltoro's GoFundMe has reached $8,410 of its $10,000 goal, and the referee is at home and recovering. Despite his defense of himself throughout the video, Hannibal ended it by stating he felt bad for Deltoro, that he's glad he's doing better and that he hopes Deltoro makes a speedy recovery.

"I regret my part in it, I truly feel bad for him," Hannibal said. "I felt terrible for him all week. And I'm glad he has, from what I understand, the staples out, and I'm glad he's doing better. I wish him a full and speedy recovery. And that's my side of it, and now it's out there."

You can watch the full video below.