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Not even a year ago, I wrote an article here on PWInsider.com with a blunt, uncomfortable headline: Someone is going to die. It wasn’t written for shock value. It was written out of concern, concern about a pattern of behavior emerging within the fringes of the professional wrestling fanbase that is continuing to circle talents on social media and real life alike.
At the time, we were already seeing troubling signs. Fans were jumping barricades to physically confront performers. Others were stalking talent at airports. Social media had become a breeding ground for threats, against wrestlers and even their families, over storylines and character work and in some cases, a perceived slight based on anything from comments made on promos to someone being tricked by online scammers impersonating cel1ebrities. Whether it was fans surround Rhea Ripley in public or fans harassing talent at airports for not signing 100 autographed Funkos or worse, there was great cause for concern.
That concern has only intensified.
This past weekend, another incident underscored just how real the danger has and could become. During an independent wrestling event promoted by Ruthless Pro Wrestling at the Berwyn Eagles Club in Illinois, a situation escalated into outright violence. The main event featured Shlak defending the RPW Rust Belt Death Match World Championship against former MLW Champion Madds Krugger, known as Krule on the independents.
What happened around that match is deeply alarming.
According to accounts circulating online, a fan had already interacted confrontational with Krule earlier in the evening at his merchandise table. Later, during the show, the same individual attempted to provoke him physically at ringside. After the match, the situation escalated: the fan allegedly challenged Krule again, initiated a physical altercation, and during that struggle, Krule was reportedly stabbed.
Again, the only video footage that has been produced thus far is the fan being beaten down by numerous wrestlers before he somehow exits the building. There's no sign he was arrested, which may be the most shocking thing about the situation beyond that he was still breathing.
Krule initially continued working, even wrestling the following day after flying home, but has since withdrawn from at least one upcoming appearance this week. The full extent of his injuries remains unclear. How and what stabbed him is currently unknown. One version of the story is that he wasn't even aware he was stabbed until well after the incident, when he was at a bar. There's a lot of uncertainty and trying to source out the story hasn't been easy.
And that uncertainty is part of the problem.
Since last year, when talking about the health and protection of professional wrestling, I’ve said that if something truly catastrophic were to happen to a professional wrestler, it likely wouldn’t occur under the controlled environment of a WWE event. Major promotions invest heavily in layered security protocols, many of which the public never even sees. The real vulnerability lies elsewhere: independent shows, smaller venues, and informal environments where security is minimal, inconsistent, or nonexistent.
That’s where this incident took place.
Independent wrestling is the lifeblood of the industry. It’s raw, creative, and often chaotic—in the best sense. But that same openness creates exposure. Wrestlers are more accessible. Barriers are lower. Oversight is looser - and let's be honest, sometimes non-existent. We've all been to shows where the only security is one guy hanging around and the crowd is very much expected to self-police their own behavior. If someone acts the fool, maybe some of the wrestling students or ring crew will step in, and that's it.
But in that sort of environment, it only takes one unstable individual to ruin or destroy lives.
We live in a time where parasocial relationships, one-sided emotional attachments to public figures, are amplified by social media. For most people, that connection is harmless. For a small minority, it becomes something darker: entitlement, resentment, or perceived personal grievance. When that mindset collides with proximity, unpredictability follows.
The danger isn’t hypothetical. The entertainment world has already experienced tragedies born from this exact dynamic.
In 2016, singer Christina Grimmie was murdered while signing autographs after a concert in Orlando. She was 22 years old. Her killer approached her under the guise of a fan interaction and opened fire at point-blank range. Her crime? She was 22 and entertaining people with her music. When she was shot, she was opening her arms to hug her killer during a post-concert meet and greet. Legendary Pantera guitarist “Dimebag” Darrell was shot and killed onstage during a performance. These were not isolated anomalies. They were the result of access without adequate protection, of performers placed within reach of individuals who should never have been allowed that proximity unchecked. Weapons were allowed to be secreted in, resulting in horrific, tragic circumstances.
Professional wrestling is not immune to this.
In fact, in some ways, it may be more vulnerable. Wrestling thrives on emotional engagement. It invites audiences to suspend disbelief, to invest in characters, to react viscerally. That’s part of its magic, but when someone loses the ability to separate performance from reality, that same intensity can become dangerous.
There is an added layer of complexity when it comes to Death match wrestling. These shows are intentionally extreme, featuring blood, weapons, and high-risk spots. To an outsider, the environment can look chaotic or even lawless. But there’s a critical distinction: the violence inside the ring is consensual and controlled. It is, as insane as the performance is, still a performance.
If everything that happened in Berwyn went down as most have claimed and repeated, it was a failure on many levels. No fan has the right to insert themselves into that environment physically. No one has the right to attack a performer, under any circumstances.
Let's make this clear as well - no promoter should treat this risk as an unavoidable byproduct of the genre, death match wrestling or not. The audience, overwhelmingly, understands this. As noted, the vast majority of fans attend these events to appreciate the spectacle and the art form. It only takes one person to disrupt that balance, and potentially cause irreversible harm.
Krule, by all indications, was stabbed somehow in the scuffle. It is insane to think that the word "stabbed" is a best case scenario compared to "murdered", but that's how messed up the situation is.
This should not be dismissed as a situation that happened because it was a Death Match show. It could have happened anywhere, at any show in the independent realm, because security is most likely to be, well, haphazard at best.
Pro wrestling can be a messed up place, where stupidity often governs and what is considered normal is anything but normal in any other realm. So, this is where the industry needs to have an honest conversation.
Independent promotions often operate on tight budgets. Margins are thin. Every added expense matters. But security cannot be treated as optional.
Basic measures could drastically reduce risk:
*Trained security personnel stationed throughout the venue.
*Off-duty police presence, visible or not.
*Controlled access points and bag checks.
*Metal detection wands or screenings where feasible.
*Clear protocols for handling aggressive or disruptive attendees.
*Hire an outfit like Atlas Security or call their owner Ronnie Lang and hire him to consult on what you can do to secure your talents and fans.
The question that must be asked is simple: how was someone able to bring a weapon into that venue in the first place?
That’s the failure point. Yes, even at a Death Match Show.
History offers another warning. Wrestler Blackjack Mulligan was once stabbed and initially believed to be fine—only to later suffer complications from infection due to the weapon used. Immediate survival does not mean long-term safety. We do not yet know the full medical implications of what happened to Krule. Hopefully, he recovers without complication.
But hope is not a strategy for safety - and it never will be.
It doesn’t matter whether a wrestler is performing in front of 10,000 fans in an arena or 100 people in a local hall. The obligation is the same: they deserve to leave in the same condition they arrived.
No one signs up to be attacked.
No one consents to real-world violence simply because they portray it in a fictional context.
And no fan has the right to decide otherwise.
The most unsettling part of all this is not that the incident happened. It’s that it feels like yet another warning shot.
This time, the outcome, while serious, was not fatal.
Next time, it might be.
That’s the reality the industry has to confront.
None of this is hypothetical, and it isn’t distant.
The danger is already here, operating in the margins, waiting for the next lapse in preparation.
If nothing changes, the headline I wrote last year and repeated today will eventually stop being a warning.
It will become a tragedy.
The fact I have now written the same headline twice normalizes the situation - and that's heartbreaking in itself.
But not as heart-breaking as someone getting killed because their dream was to enter the fantasy world of professional wrestling to entertain others.
Mike Johnson can be reached at MikeJohnsonPWInsider@gmail.com.
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