It appears that we might not be seeing Randy Orton back on WWE programming anytime soon.
RK-Bro lost against The Usos on the May 20 episode of WWE SmackDown, which resulted in Jimmy and Jey Uso unifying the RAW and SmackDown World Tag Team Championships. After the match, WWE revealed that Randy Orton had suffered a serious back injury; it was unknown when he would return to WWE programming.
At the time, this was thought to be a storyline as Orton had been penciled in to work Roman Reigns at SummerSlam. But now, that’s no longer the case.
According to Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp (via Fightful Select), Randy Orton has been dealing with a back injury for a while now and even had some work done prior to the unification match against The Usos on SmackDown.
Unfortunately, Orton’s back injury has gotten “progressively worse,” and WWE fears that The Viper will need to undergo surgery to take care of the problem. If surgery ends up taking place, this will sideline Orton for the rest of the year.
Obviously, Orton’s plans for SummerSlam have been changed, and the company is going in a different direction.
Randy Orton’s RK-Bro tag team partner Riddle will challenge Roman Reigns this Friday night on SmackDown for the unified WWE Universal Championship.
READ MORE: Riddle: I Don’t Know What The Future Holds For RK-Bro
What are your thoughts on this Randy Orton news? Are you bummed out to learn that Orton’s storyline injury is actually legit? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
