WWE match forced to stop for legitimate injury concern update

On tonight’s episode of WWE NXT, a match was stopped for seemingly a real concern for wrestler safety, with the referee using the ‘X’ hand motion and ending the bout.
In a match between North American Champion Oba Femi and Joe Gacy for the title, it appeared Gacy’s head smacked against the mat when landing after being thrown by Femi.
With the referee checking on Gacy when he seemingly didn’t get up for a planned spot, the ref immediately put up the ‘X’ hand sign as the camera cut away from showing Gacy at all and the match ended.

The camera remained fixed on only Oba Femi as it was announced that due to referee stoppage, Oba Femi retained the North American Title.
Later, a segment aired featuring Gacy crawling towards NXT GM Ava’s desk, asking for a match against Shawn Spears at NXT Stand & Deliver which she granted.
Fightful’s Corey Brennan said on their NXT post-show of the situation:

“Concussion protocol. It was a case of, recently especially, I don’t wanna (relate) it to what happened with Jon Moxley at Grand Slam and the coverage that came after that, but the concussion protocol now has just been – we’ve seen it with Austin Theory and Carmelo Hayes and so on on the main roster – the minute there’s any sign now, it’s an instant stop of the match.
“They were worried about it being a concussion – he did walk to the back of his own power, which is obviously something that was immediately a good thing to hear.
“I was told that this did change the show up quite a bit. There was supposed to be more going on after that match. It was supposed to be Dijak, Briggs… You saw the segment after, that was a pre-tape. That pre-tape actually only happened five minutes before it aired. Both segments were actually recorded within… they actually had something ready for Spears and Gacy but because of the injury they had to redo it.

“So he is okay. They were worried about him but did check him out pretty quickly and found that he was, at least on early examination, that he is okay and he will be able to compete at Stand & Deliver.
“So they were worried at first to the point that they pulled the planned graphics and videos for the match. That obviously was just them being precautionary.”

Good news on the status of Joe Gacy after tonight’s scare.
We continue to him wish all the best.
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