So at the moment this is somewhat speculative, and I say that because frankly it’s a pretty big accusation. It is known that Cain Velasquez was banged up ahead of his match with Brock Lesnar. He’s been going through issues with his knee and it seems it’s more of a serious problem than anticipated.
It was evidently always the plan for his bout with Lesnar to be a short one, just your usual short Lesnar match. However it ended up being even faster than intended, due to the health of Velasquez.
Many are now indicating that Cain Velasquez technically wasn’t actually cleared to compete at Crown Jewel. It’s said that he had a torn PCL going into the show and WWE knew it. He is expected to need surgery soon. It’d certainly be quite shameful if true that WWE put him in the ring in that condition, even if it was a smoke and mirrors match. Cain took some chair shots after the match, which is probably a poor idea, though it would seem that Cain’s legs weren’t targeted at any point atleast.
This would not be the first match WWE has held with someone that isn’t medically cleared.
Smoke and mirrors affairs have occurred in the past. Perhaps most notably, Bret Hart and Vince McMahon had a ‘match’ at WrestleMania years ago, in which Bret didn’t take a single bump or any serious blows because he wasn’t cleared for even usual contact.
Sami Zayn was in a rough situation going into NXT TakeOver: Unstoppable. He somewhat infamously injured his arm immediately before a special match with John Cena weeks earlier. Sami wasn’t really fit to work at all, but he and Kevin had, all things considered, a pretty fantastic, wild and even relatively lengthy match (13 minutes) in which Owens took remarkably good care of his good buddy.
That said, this was a fairly major match where the injury was hidden, and it seems he took a lot more than Bret Hart to say the very least. Cain was notably F-5’d onto a trainer’s table – and Dominik – last week on SmackDown.
Having people hold off on surgeries to work matches was commonplace back in the day, but is not something that’s considered particularly acceptable today. That a man that wasn’t cleared ended up in a WWE title match, against Brock Lesnar who is not exactly the world’s safest wrestler, is a little controversial to say the least.
Beyond that, it’s also just a clear poor booking decision.
This match definitely hurt Velasquez’ stock in the way it had to be booked. In most cases, it’s obvious that the best thing would be cancelling the match. But of course, this was WWE Crown Jewel and the Saudi Arabian government demanded a big MMA fight. So that’s what they had to deliver, injury or no. It doesn’t paint a pretty picture, but then these shows rarely do.
Aforementioned chair shot beatdown was likely writing Cain off, and I suppose it’s why they’re now putting attention back on Lesnar’s issues with Rey Mysterio, as I guess we’re transitioning to that match instead.
Hopefully Cain Velasquez will be okay, and the match didn’t make his injury any worse. I know he’s taking this transition to pro wrestling very seriously, and hope to see him again once he’s actually ready to go.
