WWE Changed Title Match Plans At The Last Minute

WWE will be holding their 2023 NXT Deadline Premium Live Event tomorrow night from the Total Mortgage Arena in Bridgeport, Connecticut, which will be the company’s final Peacock premium live event of the year. The show, which will see WWE NXT Champion Ilja Dragunov defend his WWE NXT Championship against Baron Corbin in the main event, will also feature several other top calibre matches including WWE NXT North American Champion “Dirty” Dominik Mysterio putting his WWE NXT North American Title on the line against Dragon Lee.

Dominik Mysterio was set to defend his WWE NXT North American Title against Wes Lee, but Lee revealed this past Tuesday night on NXT that he won’t be able to compete at NXT Deadline due to a back injury. It was then noted on commentary that an injury similar to that of Wes Lee’s will require him to be on the shelf for 8-12 months, which led to a numner of fans wondering how long WWE knew about the injury of Wes Lee and when plans for the title match was changed.

WWE Hall of Famer and NXT Executive “The Heart Break Kid” Shawn Michaels took part in a media call to promote Saturday’s NXT Deadline and it was during the media call that HBK was asked about the matchup being changed. According to the WWE Hall of Famer, the decision to have the title matchup at Deadline changed happened last month after Lee had been struggling with his injury for quite some time, but he did not know the severity of the injury.

It was also revealed that Wes Lee himself made the call to remove himself from the match a day or two before the announcement was made as Wes told him he did not think he could make it due to the pain he was in, so the decision was made at the last minute.

You can check out Shawn Michaels’ comments in the video below: