Former WWE Champion Announces Injury

This SmackDown talent confirms they're out with an injury for the foreseeable.

Oct 11, 2022 October 11th, 2022

Having been absent from WWE programming for the past several weeks, Aliyah has announced that she's currently dealing with an injury.

Taking to Instagram, the former Women's Tag Team Champion - who earlier this year won those titles with Raquel Rodriguez - indicated that this injury issue pertains to an "elevated first rib and ac sprain". While she doesn't know when she'll be back in action, Aliyah intends to return better than ever.

The Canadian explained how she got injured mid-match as she and Raquel took on the Damage CTRL tandem of Dakota Kai and IYO SKY on the 12 September episode of Raw - where Kai and SKY won the WWE Women's Tag Team Titles.

In Aliyah's own words, from Insta:

"It’s been a month so here I go straight from the horses mouth: I have to say my last match was probably one of my most favorite. And I would like to thank my tag partner Raquel and Damage CTRL And everyone involved. Yes I got injured mid match, however I have this overwhelming gratitude towards the incident because I felt like it pulled out a version of me that I never even knew existed. “Keep going!” I remember thinking. “I never get opportunities like this one” another voice in my head screamed. So idc I’m going to keep going and keep showing out. The emotions and energy I was feeling in the moment truly lit me up inside and I felt INDESTRUCTIBLE in that moment (yes, with an elevated first rib and ac sprain and all.)I am very grateful to get to do what I do and I hope my passion and efforts transcended thru your television screen. I don’t know what the future holds or when I’ll be back. But I just want to say thank you for everyone that has reached out. I really can’t wait to get back in the ring."

Having been with WWE since 2015, Aliyah finally made the move to the main roster late last year as part of the annual WWE Draft. Placed on the SmackDown brand, the 27-year-old soon made history by defeating Natalya in 3 minutes 17 seconds to record the fastest victory in WWE history.

It remains to be seen exactly how long Aliyah will be on the sidelines for, but here's hoping for a full and swift recovery for the star.

Andrew Pollard

Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.

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