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What's the story?
On a previous episode of NXT, Roderick Strong called out Lars Sullivan, and a match was advertised for this week's episode of the show, however, it didn't take place with Strong wrestling Tyler Bate for the #1 Contendership for the UK Title instead. We can reveal why that is.
In case you didn't know...
It also looked like NXT were teasing a match between Lars Sullivan and Killian Dain after the two big men clashed during the #1 Contendership Fatal Fourway match for the WWE NXT Title. However, despite an in-ring promo from Lars, and a few social media messages suggesting it, the feud never happened.
The heart of the matter
We can reveal that last-minute changes were made to the planned match between Roderick Strong and Lars Sullivan because Sullivan has picked up an injury. This was why Roderick has moved on to facing Pete Dunne for the WWE UK Title, and competing in the 205 LIVE Cruiserweight Title tournament.
Prominent online wrestling news personalities Rovert, and Casey Michael from Squared Circle Sirens have also hinted at this online, levelling criticism against the more well-known journalists for not noticing or caring about things happening in NXT
Many thought the match with Roderick was dropped so that Lars Sullivan would be free to enter the Royal Rumble match during the pay-per-view. However, that was not the case as the WWE had no intention of putting Lars in the match.
The reason why an official announcement hasn't been made regarding Lars' injury is because of the nature of NXT tapings being filmed periodically that they can get away without announcing injuries, just like what happened with Kairi Sane.
What's next?
Whatever injury Lars has picked up remains unknown at the moment. It seems to have sidelined him extensively as he hasn't tweeted on his twitter account since the 8th January. Although his tweets indicate that he may have picked up his injury during a house show on the 6th, which seems to be when he last actively wrestled
Author's take
Sorry, we can't bring you more details at this time. At the moment we just know that Lars Sullivan is injured, which is why he wasn't at the Rumble, and isn't likely to be featured in the NXT tapings taking place over the last few days.
