MAJOR NXT Star Injured For TakeOver: Brooklyn IV
Unfortunate AND fortunate.
Former NXT Champion Aleister Black underwent surgery this week following a house show injury suffered during an exchange with new holder Tommaso Ciampa. Per the Wrestling Observer's Dave Meltzer, Ciampa crotched Black on the ropes, leading to an unspecified injury that threatens his participation at the upcoming TakeOver: Brooklyn IV event.
Meltzer also notes that, while they have not been made aware of a formal recuperation time, "the TakeOver show would at least on paper seem awfully quick."
Fortuitously, there are two options available to the NXT think tank, depending on the severity of the injury.
Given that Black was slated to appear as part of a Triple Threat Match to reclaim his NXT Title, likely producers Triple H and Shawn Michaels could lay out a match in which his physical involvement is limited. If however the news is worse than initially feared, a third TakeOver singles match between Ciampa and personal rival Johnny Gargano makes, at the very least, an equal amount of sense.
Such an eventuality would also provide Black with storyline motivation to wrestle Ciampa, the man who injured him, and Gargano, the man who cost him the gold, in singles matches.
Black's involvement did offer a fresh twist on the somewhat overwrought #DIY dissolution, so this comes as bad news for both Black and the NXT fanbase alike, but there is a lesson in here somewhere: long-term, multi-faceted storytelling provides something in the way of an insurance policy.