Velveteen Dream Dealing With Back Injury

This week’s episode of NXT on USA Network has set up a new angle for Roderick Strong’s North American Championship. He was originally slated to defend against Velveteen Dream on next week’s episode of the black-and-gold brand. Instead, Dream has been pulled from the matchup after falling victim to a backstage assault at the hands of the Undisputed Era.

According to Dave Meltzer via the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the reason behind this decision is due to a back injury that Dream has been dealing with. He noted that Dream has been suffering from this injury for some time. It has since gotten severe enough that a decision had to be made to give him time to heal.

During this week’s episode of NXT, Dominik Dijakovic and Kieth Lee faced each other in a tie-breaker matchup. NXT General Manager William Regal added further stakes to their clash by announcing the winner would become the new number one contender for Roderick Strong’s North American Championship. Strong would eventually run out and cause a disqualification. Regal then informed him he would now be forced to defend his championship against both men in a Triple Threat match. This match takes place next week on NXT.