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NXT Nearly Crowned New Champion Due To Injury

By John Canton • Published 27th April 2023
wwe nxt spring breakin indi hartwell tiffany stratton

There was nearly a “Tiffany Epiphany” during the NXT Women’s Title match this week after an injury, but instead, WWE went back to the original plan.

The main event of the Spring Breakin’ episode of NXT on April 25th saw Indi Hartwell defend the NXT Women’s Title against former champion Roxanne Perez and Tiffany Stratton in a triple threat match.

Everything was going smoothly in the match with all three women in the match getting nearfalls until there was an injury that took place.

Tiffany Stratton went to the top rope and jumped off with a moonsault while Indi & Roxanne were in the perfect spot to take the bump/catch her on the floor. However, when Stratton landed, Hartwell’s lower right leg was bent awkwardly. It’s similar to Kofi Kingston suffering an ankle injury recently when Drew McIntyre did a dive onto him on the floor. Sometimes when catching somebody on a dive, it can be dangerous.

From that point on, Hartwell was helped to the back by the WWE NXT medical team. It was not a storyline injury or anything like that. Hartwell was dealing with a legit right foot injury.

With Hartwell out of the match for about seven minutes, Strattton & Perez had to improvise when it was just the two of them. Some of those moments were a bit awkward, but they got through it. Hartwell came back out to the ring favoring the right foot injury and Stratton hit Perez with a triple jump moonsault. Hartwell broke up the pin, put down Stratton and hit a running forearm on Perez to win the match.

According to Bryan Alvarez of the Wrestling Observer on his Twitter subscription service, NXT was going to have Stratton win the title if Hartwell was unable to come back out.

“They actually changed the finish to Tiffany winning after Indi got hurt, but then Indi managed to make it back out to do the planned finish.”

Another NXT wrestler, Dijak, saw Indi Hartwell while she was being treated for her injury and said she was no selling the pain meaning she was acting like it was nothing.

There hasn’t been an update on what sort of injury Hartwell is dealing with and if she’ll miss any time. However, NXT’s Sol Ruca recently suffered a torn ACL in her knee which means she’ll be out for 7 to 10 months.