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TNA has been building to a big showdown between World Champion Eric Young and the recently turned Head of Wrestling Operations, MVP, for more than a month now.
This was a major thrust of last night's pre-taped episode, that saw the champ being beaten up by all the members of MVP's alliance, but still crazy enough to demand that their pay-per-view (PPV) match at Slammiversary XII in Dallas, Texas this upcoming Sunday (June 15, 2014) take place in a steel cage.
But we've also know for quite some time that MVP was working on an injured knee. He had been saying that he was putting off an MRI in hopes that it would heal/hold up to allow him to work the PPV, but a Tweet this morning from TNA's creative head John Gaburick tells us that isn't going to be the case:
#Breaking @The305MVP suffered a torn meniscus during his last match. This morning, doctors deemed him unable to compete this Sunday!
— John Gaburick (@JohnGaburick) June 13, 2014
A fair replacement main event for #Slammiversary will be announced later today. More details ASAP at http://t.co/43MMygRZlB.
— John Gaburick (@JohnGaburick) June 13, 2014
Speculation has been that the back-up plan would be to put Bobby Lashley, the former WWE star and mixed martial artist who is aligned with MVP in the title match. He's currently scheduled to face Samoa Joe at the show, but much of the booking has been announced last minute, so one more change probably won't matter too much.
Whether or not this is a big blow to long-term plans, with ratings floundering during Young's title reign and the possibility of the company needing to change directions, remains to be seen.
More as TNA reveals and/or the dirt screens unearths it, Cagesiders.