The injury status of Roxanne Perez has been a huge talking point in recent days following her “collapse” at NXT Roadblock.
On the show, the star successfully defended her NXT Women’s Title against Meiko Satomura. During the bout, Perez took a huge amount of punishment, having revealed in the build-up that she had pushed herself to the limit to prepare for the most challenging night of her career.
Although Perez had her hand at the end of the match, her victory came at a cost. While celebrating in the ring having earned the respect of her challenger, Perez collapsed.
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 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. This was followed by a report that suggested that there was a great deal of uncertainty around Perez, and legitimate concerns about her status.
In a new update in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer noted that an “underlying medical issue” is the reason behind Perez filming the angle. Meltzer added that it’s not an injury or something that doesn’t allow her to wrestle.
“There is an injury angle going on with Roxanne Perez. Last week they had her collapsing in the ring, the same angle Shawn Michaels did in 1995 with Owen Hart which led to Michaels for the first time being a legit drawing card after. There is an undisclosed medical issue with Perez regarding her maybe not being available. It’s not an injury or something that doesn’t allow her to wrestle, because she did the match with Meiko Satomura and was training after the match. But we’re told it’s possible she will need to take a very short time or a longer time off and the way the injury storyline was done covers them no matter what the determination is, which was supposed to be clear this week.”
Roxanne Perez Remains NXT Women’s Champion
Roxanne Perez is one of the fastest-rising stars in all of WWE having captured championship gold aged just 21. After being trained by Booker T, Perez had a short spell with Ring of Honor before signing with WWE in March 2022.