As we reported yesterday, NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa will be forced to have anterior cervical fusion surgery in his neck, which means he will be out anywhere from 6-14 months. That means he will have to vacate the NXT title and his planned match with Johnny Gargano at NXT Takeover: New York is off. During the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer said that WWE knew of Ciampa’s injury long enough in advance that they didn’t resume the feud with Johnny Gargano on the main roster.

When Ciampa and Gargano were both called up, they were put back together as their team DIY and their recent feud in NXT was barely mentioned. They teamed together twice in that first week and haven’t been seen on the main roster since, although Aleister Black and Ricochet (who were called up at the same time) have been on the shows frequently.

Meltzer said that the Ciampa-Gargano story was dropped on the main roster because Ciampa “couldn’t go.” He reiterated that Ciampa was always going to get the surgery, but the plan was to get it in April after Takeover and Wrestlemania. Instead, he is having the surgery done today. Meltzer speculated that the injury must have become “real bad” to the point it couldn’t be ignored anymore in order to rush to surgery.