RevPro Referee, Aaren Wilde, Attacked (For Real) By Pro Wrestler, Josh Bodom

Last weekend on August 30th a referee at a Revolution Pro a referee was viciously attacked, for real, by two pro wrestlers after a botch finish.

The referee, Aaren Wilde, took to twitter following the Summer Sizzler RevPro event to announce his retirement from professional wrestling. Wilde cites “a much-more-serious-than-originally-thought neck and shoulder injury that means [he is] no longer able to referee.


There was a sixth tweet addressing a lack of pay that has since been deleted.

The wrestlers that attacked Wilde, Sha Samuels and Josh Bodom, did so after Bodom failed to lift his shoulders off the mat, leading to a premature three count. To be clear- Bodom and Samuels were supposed to lose either way.

Sha Samuels and Josh Bodom have had very different responses for their parts in the attack.

Samuels began the attack by slamming Wilde to the mat, claiming he was thinking on his feet. A fair defense, but attacking someone that was not fully aware of what was coming was not a good idea. While referees are trained to take wrestling moves, the facts remains that they do not always take the moves and might need more prep than a wrestler. Referees are not physically conditioned the same as wrestlers.

Sha Samuels addressed what happened on a twitter thread.



Samuels even released footage of the slam that shows he did protect Wilde.



Now for Josh Bodom. In addition to deleting his twitter, footage has been released of what Wilde addressed as “a blur.” It’s Bodom beating the hell out of Wilde. He even knees him in the head.



Aaren Wilde isn’t completely soured on professional wrestling. He asks for fans to continue to support companies that support safe environments.



While what Sha Samuels did was unprofessional and may have injured Aaren Wilde, what Josh Bodom did is criminal. Be sure to let RevPro know if you think they should allow this type of unsafe professional wrestling to take place under their watch.

Edit: Since we posted this article RevPro has released a statement.

Rev Pro Statement.jpeg