WWE Star Nia Jax to Undergo Knee Surgery, Confirms Dana Brooke on Instagram

Nia Jax will undergo knee surgery Thursday, her WWE colleague Dana Brooke announced on Instagram.

Jax first revealed April 12 she'd need to go under the knife to repair both of her knees:

Jax has been out of action since teaming with Tamina in a Fatal 4-Way tag team match at WrestleMania 35. The duo were unable to capture the WWE women's tag title belts, with The IIconics reigning supreme.

The result represented how Jax's stock had slowly slipped over the course of 2018. At WrestleMania 34, she defeated Alexa Bliss to win the Raw Women's Championship. Fast forward a year and she was largely an afterthought in the biggest event of the year.

Her absence comes at a bad time for WWE.

The company has spent so much time building the rivalry between Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey that it largely marginalized the rest of the women's division. The other wrestlers were either ignored or used as cannon fodder for Lynch, Flair and Rousey.

Sasha Banks is apparently stuck in a form of wrestling purgatory, too, which leaves WWE without one of its top stars.

If she were healthy, Jax would almost certainly be a top challenger for Lynch's Raw women's title, perhaps rehashing their brief feud that grew out of the Raw last November when Jax inadvertently broke Lynch's face.

Instead, Jax's recovery will leave her out for the foreseeable future.