When Ilja Dragunov agreed to a match against Ridge Holland at the top of NXT, it seemed innocent enough to fans out of the know.

After soft splitting with Butch on SmackDown following a long-term injury suffered by Sheamus, Holland has been on the lookout to “find himself” within the WWE Universe, hoping to finally shed the “dangerous” moniker he's been straddled with for injuring multiple Superstars and potentially ending the career of future WWE Hall of Famer Big E.

If Holland could defeat Dragunov, one of the most well-respected wrestlers not just in NXT but in the WWE Universe as a whole, maybe then fans would see that he's more than just a “brawling brute” who should scare fans off for the wrong reasons instead of the right ones. And if not? Well, so long as he didn't injure his foe, that would be something of a victory, too, as it would at least prove he could hang with the best without having to hurt them in order to win.

… yeah, except that's exactly what happened.

Ridge Holland injuring Ilja Dragunov wasn't all it seemed.

Taking the ring for the main event of the show, a main event Trick Williams, and to a lesser extent, Carmelo Hayes, weren't too fond of, Dragunov-Holland started off normally enough, with the former hitting his usual hard-hitting, kinetic offense like the H-Bomb while his foe opted for a more primal, violent style, hitting power moves typically saved for men a foot taller for obvious reason. Though Dragunov looked to have the match squared away, taking firm control as the show passed over the 10 pm hour into “overtime,” that all changed when Holland hit the NXT Champion with a DDT, and the match was stopped, with a stretcher eventually called out to presumably take the champion to the hospital for evaluation.

What gives, did Holland actually injure Dragunov after seemingly everyone on the show mentioned his tendency for injuring opposing performers, or did Shawn Michaels and company actually decide to run with an injury angle featuring a performer who might have retired one of the most important wrestling stables of the 2010s? Well, based on the available information from outside of WWE, it's pretty safe to say fans have a pretty definitive answer to that question.

Will fans accept Shawn Michaels and NXT‘s booking decision?

So, was this injury for real? Will Ilja Dragunov have to vacate his NXT Championship, or worse, retire from the sport for good? No, not unless NXT wants to run that storyline, anyway, as the injury shown on NXT television was very much a work, as the show in question was actually recorded almost a week ago so that the wrestlers in Orlando could have the week off to spend with their friends and family. Multiple reporters have since expressed that Dragunov is fine, with the “Mad Dragon” doing the same on social media with a post captioned “Pain writes the most captivating stories” on December 15th.

Why, you may ask, did NXT think this was a good idea, however, is a much more interesting question, as Holland has admitted in the past that he has received death threats for injuring Big E and clearly isn't too happy about that being the first thing anyone mentions when discussing his professional wrestling career. Is there going to be a resolution where Holland learns how to hit moves correctly, a sort of Rocky training montage spread out over multiple months? Or is this instead the start of something all more bizarre, something like Holland becoming a heel who purposefully injures performers until someone finally “stops” him? Either way, it's hard to see how this feud will generate much goodwill among wrestling fans who seriously don't like Holland, even if Big E has since forgiven him for his injury.

Big E and Ridge Holland are all good after a meaty present.

Discussing his injury at the hands of Ridge Holland last month in a special appearance on Hot 97, Big E noted that, despite having his in-ring future called into question, the duo are all good, as the former Rugby star sent a big package of meat as an apology.

“Yeah, we worked together before, and he’s a good dude, so I didn’t want him to feel bad. He actually sent me a box of meat rub. That’s how us men, that’s how we settle things, that’s how we smoke the peace pipe. He sent me a bunch of beef,” Big E told Hot 97 via Fightful. “But I don’t really eat red meat like that, so sent it to Johnny [Davenport]. It’s no hard feelings, things just went awry. There’s no malice, he didn’t mean to hurt me. He was posting that people were sending him death threats. Things go awry in wrestling. It happens. He didn’t mean it, we’re cool, it’s fine. Leave that man alone.”

Unfortunately for Big E and Holland, bringing this storyline up once more and really focusing on the latter's reputation for being a bad worker likely won't convince fans to leave him alone, as it will instead all but surely lead to even more harassment in the future. Hopefully HBK knows what he's doing in this particular situation, as this story, more than most, has a chance to backfire in a pretty serious way.