Shinsuke Nakamura challenging Jeff Hardy for the United States Championship was the focal point of Tuesday night’s Smackdown Live promotion, but on Tuesday afternoon the company put out a video announcing that Shinsuke had suffered an injury, and wouldn’t be able to compete. Hardy issued an open challenge to find a replacement opponent.
WWE didn’t go into detail on exactly what Nakamura’s injury was, however, and you wouldn’t have guessed it if I’d given you a hundred tries. According to Dave Meltzer over at the Wrestling Observer, Nakamura was pulled from Smackdown and is uncertain for upcoming Japanese house shows because he was bitten in the leg by a police dog in Bakersfield.
No, seriously:
Nakamura didn’t work SmackDown’s Monday night house show in Bakersfield, California, and Dave Meltzer has confirmed that Nakamura was bit in the leg by a police dog at the Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield yesterday.
Whether or not Nakamura will be able to wrestle at WWE’s house shows in Japan this weekend is uncertain at this point.
We’ll keep you as updated as we can on any further details from the story, because it’s not every day you write about a pro wrestler missing a championship match because an arena police dog attacked him.
