WWE Star Missing WrestleMania Due to Injury

Professional wrestling's injury bug is far from just a seasonal plague. Top promotions have been negatively affected by inopportune accidents over the years, with WWE WrestleMania 32 and AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door 2022 being two of the biggest examples. Every WWE superstar that walked out of WWE WrestleMania 31 was on the shelf come WWE WrestleMania 32 the following year. Bryan Danielson and CM Punk both went down ahead of their planned contests with New Japan opponents. While both WWE and AEW have the vast majorities of their rosters active and healthy, some top talent remain out of action and will be forced to miss big events.

Former WWE Champion Kofi Kingston is the latest on the injured list. Kingston went down with an ankle injury earlier this month during the March 3rd edition of WWE SmackDown. This led to tag partner Xavier Woods replacing Kingston in the following week's fatal five-way WWE Intercontinental Title top contender's match. WWE had hoped that Kingston wouldn't require surgery, but a new tweet from the Ghana native revealed that his ankle will in fact require the procedure.

"Earlier today instead of waiting 15 min for an Uber to take me to the YMCA Shades Valley to workout, I opted to take one of those electric street scooters. Big mistake. Half the trip was uphill and on semi highway roads! And I was wearing my air cast walking boot!" Kingston wrote. "I really wanted to move around a bit before I'm unable to do so after surgery tomorrow."

Despite the upcoming surgery, Kingston remains in high spirits.

"Tomorrow, we march forward and into the hands of the best in the world at what he does!" Kingston continued. "Let's get this ankle right!"

This is the first time that Kingston will not be a featured player on WWE WrestleMania since 2013. At that year's Showcase of the Immortals, Kingston solely appeared on the pre-show panel. Over the next decade, Kingston would regularly wrestle at the event, largely competing in tag matches alongside Woods and Big E. His biggest moment came at 2019's WWE WrestleMania 35 where he defeated Daniel Bryan (AEW's Bryan Danielson) for the WWE Championship.

This injury leaves two-thirds of The New Day on the shelf. It's currently unclear if WWE will have singles plans for Woods to appear on WWE WrestleMania 39's broadcast.

WWE WrestleMania 39 goes down on April 1st and April 2nd.