An unfortunate scene played out on Monday when a tournament bout between Penta and Solo Sikoa was cut short after a scary landing left Penta injured (Watch Video Here).
The incident occurred just a few minutes into the match. Penta went for a hurricanrana, came down awkwardly, and was immediately compromised.
After several moments of evaluation, the referee waved things off and awarded the match to Sikoa, who now moves forward in The Last Time Is Now tournament. He’ll meet Gunther in the next round.
The result creates an unusual heel-versus-heel quarterfinal, but that was the plan all along.
Bryan Alvarez of F4WOnline.com noted that the finish remained unchanged despite the injury.
“Solo Sikoa was scheduled to beat Penta, so nothing changed in the tournament,” he wrote.
Alvarez added that the injury happened roughly four minutes in, prompting a quick audible at the commentary desk.
Once it became clear something was wrong, Wade Barrett sent the show to a commercial break while Joe Tessitore was being fed updates behind the scenes.
The bout had originally been slated to go around twelve minutes.
The tournament continues on Friday’s episode of SmackDown with two more quarterfinal matches: Jey Uso vs. Rusev, and LA Knight taking on a mystery opponent.
Whoever emerges victorious from the field will challenge John Cena at WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event on December 13 from Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.
