Samoa Joe has been on a path of destruction lately on Monday Night Raw. He took out Dean Ambrose for the foreseeable future, he nearly captured the Intercontinental Championship from Roman Reigns, and he teased a feud against John Cena during last night’s episode of Raw. Even though Joe has been absolutely dominant on WWE television as of late, WWE has confirmed that Joe has suffered an injury. Dr. Chris Amann confirmed the following on WWE.com: “During his match, [Samoa Joe] felt a pop at the bottom of his [right] foot. We took a look and believe he has a plantar fascia rupture, which is a thick tissue rupture under the foot. We will get an MRI to confirm. Treatment includes a period of immobilization in a boot with crutches and platelet rich plasma injections.”

Joe’s injury is devastating considering how close the Royal Rumble is, but it has been confirmed that he will be missing out on another upcoming WWE event. WWE had been encouraging fans to vote for either Joe, Jason Jordan, or “The Drifter” Elias as a competitor in the Mixed Match Challenge. Unfortunately, Raw General Manager revealed earlier today that Joe has been pulled from the upcoming Facebook Watch series due to his recent injury. Joe had been winning the fan poll by far, but now that Joe will be unable to compete in the tournament, it has been announced that the runner-up will be taking his spot on the show instead.

Thank you all for voting for @itsBayleyWWE partner in #WWEMMC, but due to an injury suffered on #Raw @SamoaJoe is unable to compete…
— Kurt Angle (@RealKurtAngle) January 9, 2018

…therefore the runner-up @IAmEliasWWE will be Bayley’s partner. #WWEMMC
— Kurt Angle (@RealKurtAngle) January 9, 2018

Even though it seemed likely that Bayley would be teaming with Samoa Joe for the Mixed Match Challenge, it was announced earlier today that Elias will be the one to partner up with the former Raw Women’s Champion instead. Unfortunately, any plans for Samoa Joe may be on hold for quite a while. No word on how long Joe is expected to be out for, but Joe is still being advertised to compete in the Royal Rumble match. Samoa Joe had been feuding with Roman Reigns on television for the past few weeks, but he seemed to indicate that he would be facing John Cena within the next few weeks. Hopefully, Joe will be able to recover in time for WrestleMania 34 in April.