WWE News: Top NXT Star, Former Champion Tells Live Crowd That He’s Injured – How Long Will He Be Out?

Samoa Joe is one of the top stars in WWE’s “developmental” and is very well going to skyrocket into the main event scene once brought up to the WWE main roster. It has long been expected that he would soon be on Monday Night Raw or SmackDown LIVE, but no-one knows when that may happen. Well, at last night’s live NXT event, Samoa Joe revealed to the crowd that he was indeed injured and in no condition to wrestle.

Joe has had some great battles in the past couple of months with a number of NXT superstars. His most notable bouts have come against Shinsuke Nakamura which have seen them trade the Championship back-and-forth more than a few times.

Now, he’s injured and if he’s out for any length of time, it could become a bit of a problem all around.

According to WrestleZone, NXT held a live event in Riverside, Florida, on Thursday night, and it was a pretty good one. While the matches were great, the biggest news to come out of this event is that Samoa Joe personally told the crowd he was injured.

It was right before the main event that the Samoan Submission Machine came out to the ring, grabbed a mic, and let everyone know that he was injured. He said that general manager William Regal and the WWE doctors had not cleared him to compete due to being injured, so he would not be wrestling that night.

The former champion did not elaborate on his injury or say what it was that he was dealing with at all. He did sit at ringside for the main event, though, which had Shinsuke Nakamura and Tye Dillinger take on Andrade “Cien” Almas and Bobby Roode in a tag team match.

At one point, Samoa did get involved in the match by pulling Nakamura off the ring apron which led to the former champion being ejected. Nakamura and Dillinger did go on to win the match, but it’s obvious that the NXT Champion’s feud with Samoa Joe isn’t yet over.

The former champion’s interference in the match was limited, but him doing that may mean that his injury isn’t overly serious. WWE is obviously wanting to keep him in the championship picture and in a feud with Nakamura, so, he could end up returning to action soon.

WWE has still made no mention of Samoa being injured, and with that, it may not end up being serious at all. As fans saw with Zack Ryder’s injury this past week, WWE officially announced it before the episode of SmackDown LIVE was even close to being over.

Since it is near the end of the year and all that, they may just keep him in the public eye, but not have him wrestle much before it is over. His momentum and heat won’t be hurt at all by sitting ringside or backstage for a couple of weeks through the holidays.

If he really is injured, there is time for him to be off of television and heal up for a few weeks.

Bleacher Report recently stated that Samoa Joe is one of the next four NXT stars that need to be called up to the WWE main roster in 2017. Whether he is injured now or not, it is almost a given that he’ll be on one of the two main WWE shows before too long.

Samoa Joe’s injury has been kept under wraps pretty well by WWE and NXT, but maybe it really isn’t that serious. If it is just bad enough to keep him out of action for one or two events, then, they may not put a lot of attention on it. Should he have to be kept on the sidelines for any extended length of time, though, WWE will need to address the injury and see who can take his place in the spotlight.

[Featured Image by WWE]