WWE News: Braun Strowman’s Elbow Surgery Successfully Completed

WWE‘s website is reporting that Braun Strowman has undergone successful surgery on his elbow, and that he’s on the road to recovery.

There are two different stories for Braun’s injury. There’s the kayfabe version, and the real life version.

According to the Wrestling Observer, which reported on the real life version, Strowman is having surgery to remove bone spurs from his elbow. Reports indicate that his match with Baron Corbin at TLC is in jeopardy, and that we wouldn’t know whether Strowman would be able to participate in the match until after he was out of surgery.

However, while the surgery is over, we still haven’t heard whether he’ll be able to compete at the PPV event on December 16. Hopefully we hear something in regards to that soon, but it’s possible that WWE will keep it quiet until the event to create the element of surprise.

In the storyline version of events, Baron Corbin, Bobby Lashley, and Drew McIntyre attacked Strowman on the November 19 episode of Raw. The trio held Strowman down — and smashed his arm between two sets of the ringside steps, giving him a “shattered elbow.”

The match between Strowman and Corbin has long-term implications for WWE creative. Should Strowman win the match, he will go on to face Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship at a later date. If Baron Corbin wins, he’ll become the permanent General Manager of Monday Night Raw. Should Corbin suffer defeat, he will give up all of his GM power on the show.

After the surgery, Strowman posted an in-character tweet saying, “The countdown to my return and your end starts now. #TickTock” This is clearly directed at future opponent Corbin. Because they’re still working the storyline even immediately after the surgery, WWE appears to be holding out hope that the match between the two could still happen.

For the curious, WWE actually posted a graphic gallery of photos from Braun Strowman’s surgery, and it shows plenty of the bone spur removal process.

In addition to his story with Corbin, Strowman was also competing in the Mixed Match Challenge. Because of his injury, the WWE was forced to replace him in the round robin tournament. The company actually went with Curt Hawkins as his replacement, which was quite the shock to most fans.

Braun currently performs as a babyface for the WWE Raw brand. He recently had a brief run as a heel, but he quickly turned back to being a good guy. This ultimately gave WWE a storyline way to write him off TV for a bit so that he could have the necessary surgery.