Report: WWE NXT Star Tino Sabbatelli Suffers Torn Pectoral

Now one of WWE NXT’s best heels, Tino Sabbatelli’s quiet rise over the past several months has made it seem like he could be ticketed for big things. Unfortunately, those goals will have to be put on hold for a bit, as Sabbatelli has reportedly suffered a serious injury.

According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer News, WWE NXT star Tino Sabbatelli underwent surgery to repair a torn pectoral muscle. The injury occurred last Saturday on Apr. 28 in Largo, Florida, as Sabbatelli was defeated by the Velveteen Dream. Just a day before his match against Dream, Sabbatelli lost an NXT Championship match at a live event in Gainesville to the, as Mauro Ranallo calls him, mercurial Aleister Black.

Sabbatelli’s injury sounds devastating, and Meltzer reports that the injury specifically occurred after he received a dropkick from the Velveteen Dream. This sounds like a total freak injury, which makes it even harder news to hear.

The news comes at a time when Sabbatelli split up from Riddick Moss, who, like Sabbatelli, is a former football player. Of the two of them, Sabbatelli gets much more heat from the audience, so he seemed destined for a larger role in NXT. Some fans, including yours truly, wondered if he could be paired up with newcomer EC3, since the two have similar gimmicks as good-looking, jacked, arrogant, athletic, and money-hungry superstars.

It’s worth noting that this isn’t the first time Sabbatelli has suffered a serious injury at a critical point in his career. Back when he played football, Sabbatelli (real name Sabby Piscitelli) broke his foot as a rookie after appearing in just three games as a ludicrously athletic second-round pick from Oregon State.

In the WWE, he has torn his pec just when he was starting to become decent in the ring and excellent in terms of drawing raucous crowd reactions. At 34, Sabbatelli isn’t a young prospect, but he still has plenty of time to get back on track after this setback and pick up where he left off as an intriguing, throwback heel in the WWE.

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Again, this is awful news, and I truly hope Sabbatelli has the speediest of recoveries. I want to see him back out there as soon as possible, because it’s a joy to watch him. Plus, the faster he’s able to heal up, the better it will be for his career prospects as a wrestler.