Roman Reigns was supposed to appear in the slate of WWE's Night of Champions on Sunday. Less than 24 hours before the main event rolls out, his body said otherwise.

Reigns complained on Saturday of persistent sharp pain and had to be rushed to a Nashville, Tenessee hospital. The man being touted as the next big thing in wrestling underwent emergency surgical procedure to repair an incarcerated disc and could miss up to three months of action depending on his recovery. Optimistic estimates places his timetable of return at 4 to 6 weeks.

The doctor who oversaw the procedure, WWE physician Dr. Chris Amann, said per WWE.com that the wrestler had long been fighting on the ring nursing the injury but this time around he needed the surgery to correct the ailment.

"This wasn't related to a specific injury that occurred in the ring. Roman has had a pre-existing hernia for some time, which unfortunately had become acutely painful, which led to him going to the emergency room in Nashville. He was found to have a large hernia that was unable to be reduced, which means pushed back into the abdominal cavity. As a result, it was necessary to perform an emergent operation to open up the hernia sac and try and push it back into the abdominal cavity," Amann revealed.

Due to this development, Reigns may also miss the Hell in a Cell match in October. And his absence at Night of Champions paved the way for the re-entry of Dean Ambrose to the wrestling scene. Ambrose arrived in style in the event, transported by a taxicab. His match with Seth Rollins was the best of the night especially when their fight spilled into the crowds and Triple H had to summon security to restrain Ambrose.

For his part, Reigns also took the time to thank his legion of followers through Twitter:

Thank you everyone for your kind words, support and prayers!! I'm hurting right now but it's great to know good people have my back!!

— Roman Reigns (@WWERomanReigns) September 21, 2014