Shawn Michaels sheds more light on the injury Wes Lee is dealing with.
Michaels took part in a media call ahead of NXT Deadline. WrestleZone Managing Editor Bill Pritchard asked him about the decision to pull Wes Lee from his scheduled North American Championship match against Dominik Mysterio.
Michaels said it was a last-minute call, but it was Wes’s to make, and rightfully so.
“The decision with Wes was pretty darn close to last minute. Wes has been struggling for quite some time. I certainly didn’t know the depth of it. I knew — obviously, we get medical reports. But it was a decision that Wes made on his own, and as he should,” Michaels said. “I mean, clearly, he’s a young man that goes out there and performs like few others. He had a huge match already going into this premium live event working towards the North American Championship. But just a day or two before we had a long talk and he just did not think he could make it through the match with the pain he was in.
“So that was a decision that he and our medical team made. It is the best decision for Wes and that is the only thing in my mind that’s important right now,” Michaels added. “So all of this was last minute. And Wes, to his credit, was doing everything he could do to get himself ready for this. But it just wasn’t meant to be. We made the last-minute decision, I guess less than 24 hours, with [adding] Dragon Lee [to the match].”
It’s great to have him back in NXT
Michaels said Dragon Lee made sense because there’s some storyline there with Dominik, but he also had selfish reasons for welcoming him back.
“I’d be lying if I didn’t say I didn’t have him as long as I wanted to. He’s somebody that I felt like would have a fantastic match, he’s somebody that I happen to personally enjoy and like, not just as a performer but as a human being. And again, I know there were matchups that were still on the table for me here in NXT,“ Michaels noted, “so I thought that if there was any possiblilty of those matches being able to happen that Dragon Lee would be the best fit. So, we’ll find out Saturday if he can become the North American Champion, but either way, it’s great to have him back in NXT, even if it’s for a little bit longer.”
Wes Lee is expected to be out for 8-12 months while he recovers from surgery. Wes appeared on the December 5 episode of WWE NXT and said that he has to undergo back surgery due to pain and loss of feeling in his legs.
NXT Deadline takes place on Saturday, December 9 in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Watch the full media call with Shawn Michaels below:
