Assessing the Severity of Seth Rollins’ Back Injury as He Prepares to Face Shinsuke Nakamura at Fastlane

As the recently declared number one pro wrestler in the world, Seth ‘Freakin’ Rollins has left his impression as a megastar. The Monday Night Messiah has been the World Heavy Weight Champion after he defeated AJ Styles at Night of the Champions on May 27, 2023. Since then, he has defended the title in five televised matches and twenty live events. But ahead of Fastlane, there’s a threat looming over him and his title. As Shinsuke Nakamura has challenged him for his title, he also happens to know his biggest weakness, his back injury.

While Nakamura has targeted his back on various occasions, fans have been wondering about its severity and how it will affect his championship title defense at Fastlane.

How did Seth Rollins get injured?

Shinsuke Nakamura has been after Seth Rollins’ title for a very long time. Fans got to see the first glimpse of it when he turned against him after a face-off against The Judgment Day. Nakamura whispered something in his ear on the August 14th episode of Raw. It was later revealed that he said, “I know about your back” which left The Visionary scared. Since then, the star has been quite vocal about these injuries. During an appearance on WWE After the Bell, ahead of his Payback appearance, the 37-year-old star shed some light on the nature of his injuries.

He has said that he has been suffering from these injuries since 2019. The star has admitted that he has two stress fractures in the vertebrae of his lower back. Apart from that, during an appearance on Logan Paul’s podcast, Impaulsive, this July, he revealed some more injuries. He said, “There are constant injuries. My knee has been bugging me since before WrestleMania (39). I was having an issue with that. My neck acting up,” which adds up to the long list of his injuries. He also admitted that this, at times, affects his training too, but he is currently not willing to opt for surgery.

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The star has admitted that he tried stem cell therapy for his injuries. But it had provided only temporary relief. With the center of Nakamura and Rollins’ feud being his injury, fans are wondering how will it impact his title defense. 

Will Seth Rollins remain the World Heavyweight Champion?

Even though he was able to defend it at the Payback event, how things will turn out for him at Fastlane is unknown. Nakamura has challenged Rollins for a Last Man Standing match. Considering he knows about his injury and has targeted it many times, Nakamura seems to have an upper hand in this scenario. On an appearance on WWE’s The Bump, he gave an insight into how he feels about his injury. He said, “It is what it is. All of us have something. We’ve all got some sort of nagging injury, we’ve all got something that’s pulling at us, telling us we need to slow down. That’s just part of the game. I know that. Everybody knows that. Now, my injury might be a little more serious than some people. But I know how to manage it,” stating that he will be able to recover even if he suffers heavy blows.

Later on, he also showed his confidence in defending the title. He highlighted the fact that he was able to win the title with an injured back. He has been since defending the title with that injury. So, even if Nakamura targets his back during the match, he knows how to manage it and he won’t let the title slip away from his hands.

With that being said, fans are waiting to see whether The Monday Night Messiah successfully defends his title or if his back injuries will get the best of him. Let us know in the comments below what you think will happen at the Last Man Standing match.

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