Inaugural WWE Universal Champion Finn Balor has underwent surgery on his torn labrum
According to WWE.com, Dr. Jeffrey Dugas performed surgery to Balor’s complex labrum tear in his right arm sometime Tuesday.
“Finn’s injury was pretty severe, more severe than normal. A really high energy injury, it did more damage than a standard shoulder dislocation where you simply tear the labrum. The prognosis is excellent, however. We were able to fix it all and put it back where it came from. I’m anticipating him getting back at full speed,” Dugas said.
Dugas is an orthopedic surgeon specializing in sports medicine at Andrews Sports Medicine & Orthopedic Center in Birmingham, Alabama, where assumedly Finn had his surgery.
WWE has posted a photo gallery from Balor’s surgery. Balor has also posted his own photo on Twitter after surgery, seen below.
— Finn Bálor (@FinnBalor) August 24, 2016
After Balor relinquished his new title on the Aug. 22 episode of RAW. He talked about his injury and the craziness that was the 24 hours after winning the WWE Universal Title
“The last 24 hours were a bit of a whirlwind. At this time yesterday (Sunday), I was literally sitting in this seat,” Balor said. “The contrast and buzz that was in this room yesterday, and this feeling of peace and calmness, despite the injury, is quite astonishing.”
After he took the running powerbomb into the barricade at SummerSlam from Seth Rollins, he realized things physically were not right. He was able to finish the WWE Universal Title much, however.
“I knew when the accident happened that it was a serious injury. I felt my shoulder dislocate. Instinctively, I pulled. It reset. It might have came out one more time (during the match). I’m not quite sure,” Balor said.
Balor didn’t sleep much it at all Sunday night and early Monday, saying in the video he remembers being up at 4:45 a.m. Monday and had a wakeup call for 5:55 a.m. for his and WWE Women’s Champion Charlotte’s appearance on Good Morning America.
“If I can kind of man up and get through Good Morning America, it might be a sign for me that maybe I can continue and the shoulder isn’t too bad. Two or three weeks a little bit of rehab and I’ll be fine,” Balor said.
Prior to more medical evaluation Monday, Balor thought his best case scenario for recovery from his injury would be 4-6 weeks. Worst case scenario somewhere around 6-7 months, he thought. After his GMA appearance, he went to the hospital with WWE Ringside Physician Dr. Charles Robinson for further testing.
The X-Ray’s of his right shoulder were “pretty okay,” according to Balor, but an MRI suggested otherwise. That test showed a complex labrum tear in his injured shoulder.
“That’s when the writing was on the wall that I wouldn’t be working tonight (Monday),” Balor said. “I came to Monday Night Raw. Spoke to Mick. Spoke to Stephanie. And relinquished the title in the ring at about 8:10 p.m.”
When Balor came back through the curtain to gorilla position, that’s when the whole situation became real to him.
“It’s kinda like when the fairy tale ended and it became reality that ‘okay, now you’re injured.”
The new WWE Universal Champion will be decided on next week’s episode of RAW from Houston, Texas in a Fatal 4 Way match between Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, Big Cass and Roman Reigns.
