WWE Rumors: SmackDown Superstar injured; replaced in title match at Live Event
On Boxing Day, WWE had 2 Live Events taking place – one in the Madison Square Garden, New York, and the other at Heritage Bank Center in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The WWE Live Event in Cincinnati had the WWE SmackDown tag team titles on the line, and it saw The New Day defending against The Revival and the Lucha Houseparty. However, before the match began, Dash Wilder was replaced by Curtis Axel as The Revival star was 'injured'.
WWE have not revealed if it is a serious injury or just a kayfabe one, but Scott Dawson claimed that Wilder was hurt. He revealed that his tag-team partner "hurt jingle bells" over the holidays and was unable to complete.
They replaced him with Curtis Axel, one-half of the B-team, but he was not able to help them regain the tag-team gold. The New Day managed to retain their titles at the Live Event once again.
On Wilder's injury, Sean Ross Sapp tweeted the following:
There is no report from WWE on Wilder's injury and it could just be a precautionary thing right now. Reports suggest that they have not yet signed the new deals offered to them, and with just months left on their contract, Vince McMahon is not pleased with their futures still not locked in.
WrestlingNews.co reported earlier this week that the WWE chairman was not happy with the situation and wanted to turn them into comedy guys on the main roster. Their report read
Vince expected them to sign new contracts by now and they haven’t so this is what he wants to do with them. He wants to lock people in months before their contracts expire and if they don’t want to play ball then he’s going to push them as comedy guys.
This is not the first time such a thing as has been done and it was hinted earlier this year as well when reports of them asking for their release were floating about.