Undisputed ERA’s Bobby Fish suffered a knee injury at a house show on Mar. 4. Reports indicated he underwent surgery to repair torn ligaments a few days later, and we all but knew he wouldn’t be defending the NXT Tag Team Titles with Kyle O’Reilly at TakeOver: New Orleans on April 7 against the winners of The Dusty Rhodes Classic as planned.
WWE was quiet about Fish’s status, however, and on the Network each Wednesday over the past month they’ve continued to play as if he’ll be in Smoothie King Center this weekend. He’s even been featured in promos alongside O’Reilly and fellow ERA member Adam Cole talking trash about the teams in the tournament which will produce the #1 contenders.
But with TakeOver almost upon us, and the episode of NXT which features the finals of The Dusty and presumably will explain the plans for Saturday’s tag title match sans Fish coming up in just a couple days, on Sunday, April 1 WWE.com announced Bobby’s injury as having happened “over the weekend”.
The write-up which accompanied Cathy Kelley’s video update above confirms an ACL tear and Fish being pulled from the match against the winners of the Dusty Classic final of Authors of Pain vs. Roderick Strong and Pete Dunne, set to air on Weds., April 4.
The ERA is a trio, so plugging Cole in would be the obvious solution. He was announced last Wednesday for the six-man ladder match which will determine the first ever North American Champion, however. Double-duty is an option, but seems like a lot to ask from the Panama City Playboy.
You can get an idea of what direction NXT is going in our spoiler report here, although they didn’t spell out their plans to the letter with what was taped in the arena, so for all the details, you’ll have to stick with us on Wednesday night.
Either way, join us in sending best wishes to Bobby Fish for a speedy recovery.