Naomi’s injury has come at the worst time just ahead of the Wrestlemania season. She has worked hard for eight long years before achieving the gold, only to lose it nine days later. Due to the injury suffered at the Elimination Chamber PPV, she had to relinquish the Smackdown Women’s championship.
As per reports from Wrestling Observer Newsletter, she tweaked her knee badly while performing the split-legged moon sault on Alexa Bliss. She tore the Mcl, partially which needs days of rehab. Ironically, this was the move which handed her the championship.
The rehab process has started but there are some serious uncertainties over her Wrestlemania appearance. Cagesideseats.com suggested that there’re still some hope that she might show up to compete at the grandest stage of them all at the very last moment. But, considering the sensitivity of the injury, the chances are less.
Naomi’s sudden injury has given the creative a major headache. The show-runners from the blue brand wanted her to go into Wrestlemania as the champion since it will be hosted in her hometown of Orlando. They even prepared a spectacular ‘glowing’ appearance for her.
Initially, the plan was to make her defend the title in a match against Alexa Bliss. For now, the match will be contested as a multi- women’s championship match with all the available female superstars from the blue brand performing in it.
As of now, Tamina will fill the void by performing as a babyface in the Smackdown roster for the post-Wrestlemania season. She too was sidelined from WWE for almost one long year due to the same injury.
Naomi was also advertised to perform in an eight woman tag team match in the Madison Square Garden special event en route to Wrestlemania. As a major surprise, the NXT women’s champion, Asuka replaced her in the match. The contest witnessed Asuka joining Becky Lynch, Tamina, Nikki Bella to take on the team of Mickie James, Carmella, Natalya and Alexa Bliss.