Saturday night’s NXT TakeOver: WarGames live special was possibly the most unpredictable and chaotic events in NXT history, and not just because the main event ended up being a surprisingly blood-soaked affair and a dangerous, compelling train wreck.
NXT crowned a new Women’s Champon in a four-way match for the vacant title, and Velveteen Dream and Aleister Black had an instant classic, but by far the biggest shock of the night came when Andrade “Cien” Almas defeated Drew McIntyre clean as a whistle to become the new NXT Champion. Most fans had assumed Andrade’s recent (very effective) rehabilitation into a legitimate challenger was just a means of keeping McIntyre occupied until Adam Cole could challenge his for Drew’s title in January. We were wrong!
Unfortunately, McIntyre suffered a very serious injury during the finish of that match. One of the first to make an educated observation of when the injury occurred and what the injury might be was former WWE and TNA announcer Taz.
https://twitter.com/OfficialTAZ/status/932079420990517249
And it appears Taz was right as rain. During the now-customary post-TakeOver live Q and A session with Cathy Kelley, Triple H confirmed McIntyre’s injury and laid out a temporary timeline for next steps.
“Drew is a guy that has had success, had it taken away, worked extremely hard, and against all odds got a second chance. Succeeds at that second chance, and it all falls apart, and it looks like because of an injury. So, a tough night for Drew McIntyre. Tough night. He’s gonna have a sleepless night. He’s gonna go tomorrow and get an MRI done, and probably end up having surgery this weekend, if it is what we think it is.”
As of right now, the understanding is that it’s a torn bicep, and typical recovery time for a torn bicep tends to be around six months, depending upon the severity of the injury. EC3 suffered a similar torn bicep back in 2014, and Scott Dawson of The Revival is currently out of action with a ruptured bicep, which he sustained in August.
WWE also released this video of a devastated McIntyre after Saturday’s event, and he vowed to return for his NXT title as soon as he’s able.
Best of luck and a speedy recovery to McIntyre, who was one of the most inspirational stories of 2017. It’s possible he may have been intended for the main roster sooner rather than later, as Andrade winning the title was clearly the planned finish of Saturday’s match. But of course, all of that is on hold for the time being.
