What’s the story?
Austin Aries had his first physical interaction in the ring tonight on Raw when he sent Neville packing at the end of a post-match interview.
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Aries has been out of action since October of 2016 when he suffered an injury to his left eye due to a stiff kick from Shinsuke Nakamura during a match at an NXT Live Event. Referees immediately stopped the match, and it was later revealed that Aries had suffered a large orbital fracture that would require surgery.
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Aries seemed to be in good spirits, though, as he tweeted this picture out shortly after the injury occurred.
The video of the kick in question can be seen above.
The heart of the matter
As we reported previously, Rich Swann finally cashed in his rematch clause after having lost his championship to Neville at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view. Neville almost, “couldn’t handle this,” but ultimately was able to weather the storm from Swann and lock on his submission move to retain the Championship.
To recap, Neville had defended the WWE Cruiserweight Championship twice in back-to-back nights and was feeling incredibly sure of himself. In his post-match interview with Austin Aries, Neville claimed that he was beyond competition in the Cruiserweight division.
Of course, the King of the Cruiserweights took umbrage with the fact that he fans were chanting for The Greatest Man That Ever Lived instead of him. Neville became aggressive with Aries at that point, causing Aries to take off his glasses as Neville said that he would fracture Aries’ other orbital bone.
Aries stated that he had one more question for Neville, then corrected himself and said that it was more of a statement, before smashing Neville in the face with his microphone. Aries then hit Neville with a massive discus elbow strike to send the Cruiserweight Champion to the floor.
What’s next?
We imagine that this will be addressed tomorrow night on 205 Live. The repercussions of the segment between Aries and Neville have already been felt on Monday Night Raw, as Aries was not on commentary with Michael Cole and Corey Graves for the Akira Tozawa vs. Ariya Daivari match that took place later in the night.
Sportskeeda’s take
It has been rumoured for quite some time that Aries was going to challenge Neville for the Cruiserweight Championship at WrestleMania 33. If that is the case, we absolutely can not wait.
With how Neville has looked in his current run of matches, as well as what we know Aries is capable of, that match has the ability to steal the show if it does indeed happen.
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