This week’s NXT saw a match come to an abrupt end when Tony D’Angelo suffered an apparent injury during his bout with Wes Lee. The injury took place when D’Angelo attempted a splash in the corner but tripped, causing him to hit his face on the second turnbuckle and land awkwardly on his right knee. Dave Meltzer reported on Thursday that D’Angelo’s injury is real, but that he won’t need surgery or be out of action for a long period of time.
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“From what I understand, it’s not that bad in the sense that I don’t think it’s major surgery or anything. I’ve heard he’ll be back sooner than you would think, but he is hurt,” Meltzer said.
D’Angelo, real name Joseph Ariola, made his in-ring debut on the Oct. 5, 2021 episode of NXT 2.0 after weeks of vignettes. He quickly established The D’Angelo Family faction and briefly controlled the Legado Del Fantasma faction after beating Santos Escobar at Heatwave, but his multiple attempts at winning the NXT, NXT North American and NXT Tag Team Championships have all come up short. Tuesday’s match result puts Lee in the Ladder Match for the vacated title at Halloween Havoc. You can see the updated lineup for the Oct. 22 show below:
- NXT Championship: Bron Breakker vs. Ilja Dragunov vs. JD McDonagh
- NXT North American Championship: Carmelo Hayes vs. Oro Mensah vs. Wes Lee vs. Andre Chase/Von Wagner vs. TBA (Ladder Match)
Shawn Michaels, who has been overseeing NXT throughout its 2.0 run, hinted at some changes coming during an interview with My San Antonio this week — “I will say that Hunter trusts me quite a bit and I have sort of a great deal of freedom to do what I think is the best thing for NXT and our talent here. But, I can’t speak ill of Vince or any of the other people. They have all been good to me over the years, and I always tried to give them everything I can. So, that isn’t going to change,” Michaels explained. “But, Hunter and I’s thought process is certainly more in line, so I don’t find myself having to ask him a lot of questions or if this or that is OK to do, or what do you think of this? He has given me a great deal of freedom down here, which I appreciate. But, the good thing is we are best friends, and we are going to talk all the time. But, nine times out of 10 we are on the same page, so I think that makes it easier for everyone involved and it certainly is a more streamlined process. I think everyone is encouraged by that and there is a great deal of excitement from a talent standpoint as well.”
