WWE: Ridge Holland Lisfranc Injury & Surgery Update, Mustafa Ali on His Recent WWE NXT Return Being “Shawn Michaels Told Me To Be Real, He Was Right”, Tyler Bate, Austin Theory, Shinsuke Nakamura, & Tama Tonga’s Current WWE Absences Update

Ridge Holland Lisfranc Injury & Surgery Update

As noted before, Ridge Holland has been out of action for WWE since the September 27th TNA Impact! tapings in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada due to a lisfranc injury and surgery.

Holland provided an update earlier today on Twitter talking about his injury and how he was looking forward to getting in the best shape of his life before his return. Holland also thanked his fans and the Andrews Orthopedic Team in Birmingham, Alabama.

Post surgery update ‼️ #surgery #update #recovery pic.twitter.com/1C0SHRZIXt

— “ The Steam Pig” Ridge Holland (@RidgeWWE) October 4, 2025

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Mustafa Ali Comments on His Recent WWE NXT Return Being “Shawn Michaels Told Me To Be Real, He Was Right”

This past Tuesday’s WWE NXT show at the Performance Center in Orlando, Florida featured current TNA talent Mustafa Ali making a surprise return appearance to NXT. Ali challenged “All Ego” Ethan Page for his NXT North American Championship at next week’s NXT Showdown show that was later made official for the show.

Denise Salcedo held a recent interview with Ali. One of the topics discussed included Ali’s thoughts about his recent surprise return appearance to NXT and his promo segment about being owed a NXT North American title shot for the past two years.

“I gotta be perfectly honest with you, that’s what the original idea was. When I got there, I kind of shied away from it. It wasn’t that I wasn’t comfortable with it. It’s just that I feel like I’ve said this before, I’m at a stage in my career, especially with TNA, where I feel like I’ve presented this, this politician, like a very powerful, very confident individual that kind of condescendingly weaves and snakes his way into the match. So when I got there, I did meet with Shawn, and I kind of pitched a different version of the same promo, but what I thought would be more in line with what I did. Initially, he was like, ‘Yeah, I kind of see it.’ Then I want to say it wasn’t that long before we’re on, he changed his mind, and he pulled me aside with the writer. He goes, ‘I’m telling you, you’ve got to be real on this one. You’ve got to let people know what happened. You’ve got to trust me on this. Start off how you want, but then midway through, just take the mask off and look him down in the eye and tell everybody what happened. I’m telling you. You’ve gotta trust me.’

At the end of the day, Shawn Michaels tells you how he wants it, he wants it. I won’t lie. I thought he was wrong initially, and then I went out, and as I’m cutting the promo, I myself started to feel it, and there was this pin drop silence. I think I said something along the lines of, ‘My dream was on the horizon, but that day, Mr. Page, the sun did not rise,’ and you could just hear everyone felt that was real. Then, I went on to what happened, and the reaction afterwards, and them cheering, and even the chatter online afterwards. I think people genuinely, genuinely would be upset if I did not win. So when I came back, I looked at Shawn, I go, ‘You were right.’ It’s one of those things that even all this time in the game, I know me, but still, I’ll 100% say that was 100% Shawn. Shawn made the call, and he made the right call.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

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Backstage Updates on Tyler Bate, Austin Theory, Shinsuke Nakamura, & Tama Tonga’s Current WWE Absences

Tyler Bate has been absent from WWE since this past April due to non-injury related reasons. Austin Theory has been absent from WWE since this past July due to an undisclosed injury. Tama Tonga has been out of action for WWE since this past April due to him being believed to have suffered an undisclosed injury. Shinsuke Nakamura has been absent from WWE since this past June due to unknown reasons.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources provided him some updates regarding the current abscesses of several wrestlers in WWE.

In regards to Tyler Bate, Meltzer reported that Bate is confirmed to be one of the masked members of Los Americanos. Meltzer reported that Rayo is Pete Dunne under the mask and Bravo is Bate under the mask.

In regards to Austin Theory, Meltzer confirmed that Theory is still out of action due to an undisclosed injury.

In regards to Shinsuke Nakamura, Meltzer reported that Nakamura is still with WWE but the reason for his current lengthy absence is simply due to him rarely being used in WWE.

In regards to Tama Tonga, Meltzer reported that Tonga’s current abscense situation is unclear due to those spoken to never gave him an actual answer nor confirmed if he has been absent this whole time due to an injury or not.