WWE NXT Women’s Champion Kendal Grey is heading into Heatwave banged up, but that isn’t changing her plans.
Grey suffered the injury weeks ago during an underground match against Lola Vice for her title, when she collided with the ring steps and began bleeding from her ear.
Speaking on Busted Open Radio, Grey admitted she’s still dealing with ringing in her ear and lingering balance issues despite ongoing rehab, calling it a slower recovery process than she’d like.
I definitely wouldn’t say it’s 100%, for sure. I mean, I still have ringing of the ear. I still feel like I’m not 100% balanced, but we’ve been doing a lot of rehab for it. We’ve been doing a lot of stuff to try to get everything back to normal, but it is a slower process.
Even so, Grey made clear that finishing her recovery isn’t her priority right now but retaining her championship is. She said she’s fully prepared to defend the title on Sunday regardless of whether she’s back to full health, and acknowledged she expects her opponent, Kelani Jordan, to target the injured ear given her reputation for playing dirty.
But I think, in my mindset, like I said, I’m crazy. My No. 1 priority isn’t fully recovering, it’s defending this championship. So I’m gonna do whatever it takes, whether I’m not 100%, whether I’m 100%, going into Sunday, going into Heatwave. I’m gonna defend this no matter what,” she added.
Grey said she plans to block out the pain and focus entirely on getting the job done once she’s in the ring.
I definitely try to [block it out]. I feel like there’s been times, even in amateur wrestling, I go in being injured and I know that that might be a target that people try to attack. And I know that Kelani likes to play dirty, and I know she probably will be coming for my ear, and I’m gonna have to do everything in my power to avoid that.
But at the end of the day, when I’m in that ring, it’s a fight. I’m not worrying about my ear. I’m not worrying about not being 100%. I’m worrying about doing what I gotta do, and that’s retaining the NXT Women’s Championship,” the champion finished.
Grey is set to defend the NXT Women’s Championship against Jordan at NXT Heatwave on August 30 in Edinburg, Texas.
