In the main event of NXT Roadblock on March 7th, Roxanne Perez put her NXT Women’s Title on the line against Meiko Satomura.
The veteran held the upper hand for much of the bout and dished out a great deal of punishment before Perez snatched the win by rolling up the challenger. Ahead of the match, Perez gave an interview where she said she’d pushed herself to the limit in training for the biggest match of her career.
Those comments appeared to come back to haunt the young star as she collapsed in the ring after embracing Satomura. Officials quickly rushed to the ring and the show went off the air with Shawn Michaels and Booker T watching her leave in an ambulance.
WWE later stated that Perez had been taken to the hospital for tests, before later being released. While it quickly became clear that the “collapse” was part of a storyline, it appears that it might be a cover for a real issue.
On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer reported that the on-screen situation around Perez is so vague because there is genuine uncertainty backstage.
“The reason it’s so vague is because the actual situation really is so vague, they actually don’t know what exactly is going on.
So until they do, they kind of have to go in there with, ‘Well, we don’t know if she’s stripped (of the title)’. Just a whole bunch of things going on.
What I was told was it’s a vague situation in the sense that, hopefully there’s nothing wrong, but there might be.
She didn’t faint after the match, that was a cover story for the fact that something may or may not be going on, and they don’t know exactly, so therefore they did the Shawn Michaels angle.
I don’t know what it is, I was just told that it’s a cover story for something, and they don’t know exactly what it is so therefore it’s a vague story, because the actual situation is vague.”
Roxanne Perez To Miss NXT Stand & Deliver?
On March 14th, Shawn Michaels announced that due to the uncertainty around Perez a Ladder Match would be held at Stand & Deliver to determine a new Women’s Champion, hinting the star will miss the show. On the most recent episode of the show, Zoey Stark and Gigi Dolin qualified for the match.
H/t to Wrestle Talk