WWE Rumors: Randy Orton Head Injury Update, Won’t Return To WWE?
After a momentous SummerSlam 2016, WWE rumors are abounding that Randy Orton will not be returning to the ring anytime soon because of his tragic head injury — and some are saying that Randy Orton won’t return at all. But are these rumors true? Here’s what we know so far.
Bleacher Report was the first to confirm the WWE rumors about Randy Orton right after SummerSlam. In their match, Orton — who was favored to win over Brock Lesnar — was defeated after a TKO (technical knockout) by the hulking Lesnar. Many commentators who have been following wrestling for some time have compared the Lesnar/Orton match to the match held eleven years ago at SummerSlam between The Edge and Matt Hardy, which ended on a similar bloody note. Certainly, no one expected the match between Lesnar and Orton to end the way it did, with Orton having to get treated for a laceration on his head that required 10 staples to close. Even the live-Tweeting from the SummerSlam stage declared what happened to Orton was an all-out “assault.”
#TheBeast @BrockLesnar is inflicting an ALL-OUT ASSAULT on @RandyOrton… #SummerSlam pic.twitter.com/THGLEz4ePh
— WWE (@WWE) August 22, 2016
That said, while Orton’s injury is going to keep him out of the ring for a little while, it’s not going to be a permanent hiatus from WWE or the ring. Still, Orton’s fans may not like that their hero is otherwise indisposed as an end result of this bloody fight.
But the bigger WWE rumors that have yet to be answered is, where does Randy Orton go from here? Not only was his loss against Lesnar a surprising one for the WWE superstar, but now it seems as though the WWE superstar doesn’t really have anywhere to go but down in the organization.
That’s, at least, according to ESPN, whose analysis of the show is — if nothing else — thought-provoking. For the past nine months, Orton has been out of commission due to a shoulder injury, and his momentous return at SummerSlam was, well, anything but that. Granted, there was certainly a lot of entertainment value for a match that was “15 years in the making,” but that’s about all there was to it. After all, we need to be reminded, Lesnar and Orton are on competing shows — Raw and SmackDown — and Orton’s loss doesn’t do anything for the SmackDown brand, which has taken a bit of a tumble in the ratings, especially when compared to its Monday night counterpart. Could it be that Orton is, really, too old for the ring and looking to retire?
Brock had this planned ever since Orton made the “no enhancements needed” remark at Battleground.???????? #SummerSlam pic.twitter.com/tse21mjK1f
— Cooper Nisbet (@cooper_nisbet) August 22, 2016
According to SportsKeeda, those WWE rumors of Orton’s ignoble career demise are unfounded. If anything, Orton’s injury could actually lead to trouble for Lesnar down the line. For one, Lesnar has often been the subject of countless WWE rumors because of his tendency to brutalize his opponents, forgetting that this is the WWE, not MMA. (Are you listening, Conor McGregor?) Second, despite rumors to the contrary, we have to remember that wrestling is real — the sport is real, the players are real, the moves and injuries are real — and people don’t come to a wrestling match to watch others get bloodied beyond recognition. Third, Lesnar is only back with the WWE on a part-time basis — there’s the old “last hired, first fired” adage that can apply there. Finally, if Lesnar does indeed get punished for extreme and/or unnecessary roughness towards his fellow athlete, it wouldn’t be the first time in wrestling history that this happened.
What do you think of these latest WWE rumors that have come out since SummerSlam? Do you think this injury is a career-ending one for the 12-time world champion, Randy Orton?
Leave your thoughts about the latest WWE rumors in the comments below, and stay tuned to this space for the latest WWE rumors.
[Photo by JP Yim/Getty Images]
