WWE Superstars train and perform hard around the clock, and unfortunately, that means injuries and other setbacks come as a part of it. A fan-favorite superstar on the rise was just forced back on the injured list, and is opening up on what exactly happened, and why they decided to wrestle while still being hurt.
Adriana Rizzo signed with WWE as a member of the Fall 2022 Rookie Class at the WWE Performance Center. A popular member of the now-disbanded D’Angelo Family, Rizzo debuted in a non-televised NXT live event Battle Royal in October 2022, but was then on the shelf for around a year after suffering a ruptured Achilles tendon. She returned in another Battle Royal, and soon began appearing with Tony D’Angelo and Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo.
The Glue has not wrestled since defeating Karmen Petrovic at the WWE World Convention during WrestleMania 41 weekend. The 26-year-old Minnesota native took to Instagram this week to announce that she was out of action once again with a torn ACL and meniscus.
Rizzo seemed upbeat and determined to come back stronger than before.
Adriana Rizzo Details ACL Injury At WWE Performance Center
The D’Angelo Family of WWE NXT officially disbanded earlier this summer. However, Adriana Rizzo has kept The Family’s TikTok account alive.
The Rizz took to TikTok to explain the injury that she revealed earlier in the week.
How I tore my leg. How… I tore my knee. What happened, why did it happen. I’ve gotten a lot of people speculating, ‘Oh, you were doing this! Oh, you were doing that!’ You know what? [bras d’honneur gesture] right up… you already know. You already know… first of all, none of your business, but I’m gonna tell you anyway. I’m gonna tell you anyway because I’m sick of hearing… I’m sick of the speculation, so here’s what happened,” Adriana Rizzo said.
She continued:
I had a partial tear, partial not fully… partial tear of my ACL. A year-and-a-half ago I was doing a throw over my head, and somebody pushed my knee in, partially tore my ACL. Whatever, I’m fine, I worked through it for a year-and-a-half, yes I knew there was a chance it was gonna fully tear, but I wasn’t about to sit out for a year-and-a-half because I got, ya know, a splinter on my ACL. [I thought] I’m gonna get surgery when the whole ‘kebang’ goes, so… I’m gonna go as long as I can until that happens,” Adriana Rizzo added.
Staying true to the gimmick, the 26-year-old revealed that she dealt with a partial tear of her ACL for more than a year. Rizzo then suffered a full tear while training at the WWE PC.
Yes, I knew it was a possibility, yes I made the decision, yes I’m still happy about my decision. So, what happened was… I was at practice, I was doing a drill, I’m running over to the corner, and boom! My knee just, you know… ‘bada-bing, bada-boom,’ explodes. I fall over, I lay on the floor for like four minutes because I knew… I knew my knee exploded, and I was like, ‘Well, s**t, there it goes… there it goes!’ So, that’s the story of me knee, so everyone can stop making up their little… their little fairy-tale rumors because that’s what happened. Alright, have a good day,” Adrianna Rizzo said.
@the.dangelo.family#aclsurgery#aclrecovery#meniscus#fyp♬ original sound – The D’Angelo Family
Rizzo is no stranger to training and injuries while competing. The five-time NCAA All-American racked up numerous achievements as a Track & Field athlete at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and at St. Michael-Albertville High School in St. Michael, Minnesota.