An NXT Women's Championship match was stopped at Download Festival this weekend following an injury to Ruby Riot inflicted by champion, Asuka.
The NXT roster graced the UK's Download festival for a second year in a row this past weekend. One of the matches on the card during the brand's three day stay was an NXT Women's Championship match between long time champion Asuka and challenger Ruby Riot. Unfortunately, as reported by Wrestling Inc, the match was brought to an abrupt and rather bloody end when Ruby was sent head first into the steel steps by the Women's Champion.
Shortly after the nasty looking injury occurred it became apparent that the gnarly looking injury was not the way the match was supposed to go. As you can see from the tweet below by a fan in attendance there was an awful lot of blood and the cut required five stitches.
The rivalry between Ruby Riot and Asuka over the Women's Championship is an ongoing one, and the pair are due to do battle in a triple threat elimination match for the belt on the upcoming edition of NXT. Due to that match being pre-taped there is luckily no problems when it comes to Riot being too injured to compete. In fact as you can see from the interview below, which took place later on the same day as the injury, Ruby recovered quickly and actually competed later in the weekend.
Ruby won't be any stranger to the strong style that Asuka brings to NXT. Since her arrival a few months ago she has been in the ring with the Japanese star a number of times and this is the first time that anything has really gone wrong between the two of them. That didn't stop Riot remaining staying in character though and having a dig at the champ during her Facebook interview, claiming that the injury shows Asuka may actually have “a little bit of an Achilles heel”.
While the injury was of course accidental, it isn't the first time The Empress Of Tomorrow has hurt one of her peers recently. The triple threat between Asuka, Riot, and Cross at NXT Takeover: Chicago was originally supposed to also contain Ember Moon, however she was put out of action by the current champion. Asuka may need to reassess how strong her patented strong style really is going forward following this second injury in a matter of months.