Finn Balor injured at house show?

[Navi]

It's being reported on the main page that the WWE has confirmed Finn Balor suffered an ankle injury at the NXT house show in Nashville. It happened in the main event match against Samoa Joe. They originally thought it was his knee but it turned out to be his ankle.

He will be evaluated on Monday to see just what's wrong with it and how serious it is. But he's been taken off the house show circuit until more is known. Now it looks like the injury bug that's been hitting the main roster has moved over to the NXT roster.

Bummer. I was hoping he'd drop the belt soon and join Styles on the main show.

 

[Richard Blonoff]

A friend of mine said he showed up for the NXT event in Indy on crutches and that security was keen on keeping people away from him when talent got off the bus and entered the building, going so far as to yell no pictures at bystanders.

You can only hope the injury isn't serious, as Finn has been NXT's go to guy for about a year. Like you said, I think a lot of people were expecting him to move up to the main roster soon, likely on the post Mania Raw. Hopefully this doesn't derail that.

Damn this injury bug.

 

[@smarkmouth]

It's easy to fret, but as long as nothing is broken or torn, TakeOver Dallas is still a few months away, and I believe they have the next few weeks of NXT already filmed. Hopefully, it's a simple roll and being taken off the house show card is a precautionary measure. If so, they won't have to heavily revise their short term plans with Finn Balor.

Either that, or Vacant continues his historic run.

 

[Papa Pillman]

It's easy to fret, but as long as nothing is broken or torn, TakeOver Dallas is still a few months away, and I believe they have the next few weeks of NXT already filmed. Hopefully, it's a simple roll and being taken off the house show card is a precautionary measure. If so, they won't have to heavily revise their short term plans with Finn Balor.

But this is the double edged sword....

NXT decided to tape all of its television unusually early for this cycle, and as a result all of the episodes between now and Dallas are already "in the can" despite being eight weeks out from the event(not unlike the bulk taping practices that TNA often gets criticized for).

So if, as you stated, Finn is fine and its merely a sprain or tweak, then nothing will be affected as he'll be ready for Takeover, and his television appearances in the mean time have already been shot to build the show. But, if it is conversely a break that will require a layoff past Mania weekend then the company is screwed and will have to seriously scramble, having already shot weeks of TV building to a title match that they can't deliver.

 

[Hyorinmaru]

I don't see it being a MAJOR setback, just a tiny one.

It blows we won't be able to see him in the ring for a bit but because he's still showing up for events he'll be able to go come TakeOver: Dallas so they shouldn't strip him of the title.

He can still help further any storyline on the mix and have a replacement wrestle for him until he's better.

 

[Reflection]

Really bad news. Finn Balor is one of my favourites in the WWE, and I was kinda hoping he would be called up to the main roster this Wrestlemania season, but it seems like we'll have to wait for that. Hard to tell how severe the injury is from this pic:

He just uploaded another pic on twitter, and his left foot is bandaged here as well:

He also mentions in the second tweet that he was really sad today, so it is possible that the injury is as severe as we feared. I hope it's just me reading too much into the tweet, but I think that's not the case... Let's hope that he has a quick recovery and isn't sidelined for a long time like Sami Zayn or Hideo Itami.

But seriously though, what could be the reason behind so many injuries in the reality era? Initially, I thought that the Indie/NJPW wrestlers don't take care of their bodies enough. But the League of Nations members have also injured themselves in the not-so-distant past, and so have Cena and Orton, I believe. Miz suffered a chipped tooth on Smackdown and luckily it wasn't knocked off like Foley's. What a shame that would be for the moneymaker. Has the wrestling style become unsafe with too many risky moves?

 

[Jeff Deliverer of Mail]

Nice injury to have considering his move-set, especially his off the top rope double stomp.

 

[Navi]

He also mentions in the second tweet that he was really sad today, so it is possible that the injury is as severe as we feared. I hope it's just me reading too much into the tweet, but I think that's not the case... Let's hope that he has a quick recovery and isn't sidelined for a long time like Sami Zayn or Hideo Itami.

But seriously though, what could be the reason behind so many injuries in the reality era? Initially, I thought that the Indie/NJPW wrestlers don't take care of their bodies enough. But the League of Nations members have also injured themselves in the not-so-distant past, and so have Cena and Orton, I believe. Miz suffered a chipped tooth on Smackdown and luckily it wasn't knocked off like Foley's. What a shame that would be for the moneymaker. Has the wrestling style become unsafe with too many risky moves?

Don't know the guy, but he's probably sad because he can't compete. I think any wrestler who's used to getting into the ring and all of a sudden can't would be sad. Hoping too it's not that bad, and he can recover from it quickly.

In answer to your other point. It's in my mind a combination of two things, high risk moves, and performing them too often. These guys whether it be the main roster and now NXT are working literally their asses off. Doesn't look like they have much down time, and the bodies just wear out after night after night of taking punishment.

The more injuries that pile up, the harder they work to cover the guys that are out. So more of a chance that they themselves get injured. It's a testament to what kind of shape these guys are in that they can put up with the grueling schedule and not just keel over. Hopefully as more come back to work, the guys that are out there now can get a bit of a rest.

WWE doesn't help either. They have lot's of wrestlers we never see, and they could be using them to replace injured workers. Even if they are just jobbing out it's a fresh body. Sandow is a good example, where the hell is he?

 

[TJ Matics]

Real tears man.

I've been behind with NXT (I prefer to binge watch a bunch of episodes at the same time) so imagine my surprise when I log onto to Twitter to see Balor hobbling around on crutches. Like other posters I too was expecting Balor on the main roster soon enough, not for Wrestlemania but sometime afterwards... possibly the following RAW. If this isn't a serious injury I can still see that happening, I know he was excited about all of the new signings so that sucks too.

 

[OYDK]

Shit, it doesn't look good. It's a good sign that it's not in a cast, but it also doesn't look like he can put any sort of weight on it. Hopefully that's only because doctors told him to keep it elevated at all times.

If Balor goes down before Dallas... man, WWE is in some trouble.

 

[Jeff Deliverer of Mail]

Samoa Joe takes down another wrestler. He should add that to his heel gimmick. The mean injurer guy.

 

[Azane]

I honestly think it's a combination of less steroids being used and high house show counts.

High Risk isn't really that big a thing right now, the performers are doing less high risk today than they were during the previous eras, WWE "limiting" movesets has ensured that.

The double foot stomp is one of the easiest moves for the performer to do without getting hurt, almost all of the risk for the move comes from the target, as a botched landing means they either legit get stomped or have 200+ lbs fall on them.

I wouldn't really blame Samoa Joe, I've heard from reports that he's a bit stiff, but his moveset doesnt really risk someone's ankle too much.

WWE really needs to cut it's house show count, especially with half the roster out, because it's adding more pressure to the other half, losing your big stars to injuries while performing in front of 100-200 people in the middle of nowhere isn't worth losing your TV show deals over having no stars left.

 

[ShinChan]

2015 was an injury-year and 2016 hasnot been good either. Finn Balor is my most favorite wrestler in NxT and now he suffered an injury. I read somewhere that its an ankle injury and Balor has been walking only with support of crutches. Thats a too bad news. First of all, the scheduled TakeOver: Dallas would be ruined if the injury is serious enough to keep him out.

I think Injuries are increasing most probably because of heavy schedule of work of wrestlers nowadays.

By the way, as much as i can remember, Balor did get injured after doing a Coup De Grace on Kevin Owens in middle of 2015. I think he should replace it with a much demonish finisher.

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