Injuries are a part of professional sports, forcing teams to react and improvise when a key player goes down.
However, when injuries occur in sports entertainment, WWE superstars must improvise on the fly ... even if that means changing the pre-determined outcome.
That could have been the case last night on Monday Night Raw during Chris Jericho's match with Neville. As spotted by Deadspin, Neville seemed to suffer what appeared to be a knee or ankle injury during the bout. Y2J realized this and quickly went for the cover and pinfall, so Neville could get the medical attention he needed.
Smart move. Except there was one problem — referee Charles Robinson didn't notice the injury when it happened, and because of that, he might have thought the rising superstar was laying it on thick in an attempt to sell the punishment Jericho was giving him.
If that was only the case, though, as Neville was in serious pain. With Robinson not dropping on the canvas to record the pinfall, Jericho began yelling at Robinson in an attempt to urge the ref to end the match, knowing Neville's injury was serious. You can see a little of that in this video, with Jericho yelling at Robinson, to no avail, as again, the ref might have thought that Jericho was just reaching into his bag of veteran-heel tricks by berating the official.
That being said, Jericho knew the match had to end — and since Robinson didn't seem close to that route — Y2J forced the issue, shoving the ref, triggering an instant disqualification. Hey, that's what it took for Robinson to get the point, and Jericho made it happen. It worked, quickly bringing the match to an end and getting Neville the medical attention he needed.
WWE actually made Neville's trip to the emergency room part of its all-encompassing social media content, as it was determined that the former NXT star sustained a fractured left ankle.
That's the worst-case scenario for a WWE superstar on the Road to WrestleMania, less than a month shy from the "Show of Shows" on April 3 before an expected 100,000-plus raucous fans at AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys.
