In what has to be the most inopportune time in his career for this to happen, WWE NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa will have to undergo neck surgery.
WWE.com reported that Ciampa needs to have an anterior cervical fusion and the surgery is scheduled to take place on Thursday.
This has to be the worst possible time for Ciampa, who made his main roster debut a few weeks back when he and Johnny Gargano reformed DIY and took Monday Night Raw by storm.
However, he was unable to really follow through like fellow NXT call-ups Ricochet and Aleister Black did. While Black and Ricochet get a Raw world title shot on Sunday at the WWE Fastlane PPV, Black and Gargano will miss out.
The good news for fans is that they can still watch Tommaso Ciampa perform thanks to the fact that NXT pre-records their weekly shows. DIY is part of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic and their match against the Undisputed Era is tonight on WWE Network.
Breaking: #NXTChampion @ProjectCiampa to undergo neck surgery. https://t.co/MPklexSY8y
— WWE NXT (@WWENXT) March 6, 2019
There are also some huge events coming up for Ciampa and Gargano at the future TV shows, but it is unclear if they will be able to play off those angles after the surgery.
According to the North American Spine Society, anterior cervical fusion is the result of cases where arm pain is caused by a cervical disc bulge or herniation caused by bone spurs. Most of the time anti-inflammatory medication fixes this problem but when it doesn’t, surgery is required.
The success rate of this surgery is 85-95 percent. Recovery time generally lasts 4 to 6 weeks.