WWE may have written Randy Orton off television due to a legitimate injury, says veteran
Randy Orton has been written off television after Kevin Owens hit him with a piledriver on WWE SmackDown. A wrestling veteran recently wondered if the company had taken that step due to The Viper suffering from a legitimate injury.
Over the past few weeks, the 14-time world champion has been feuding with The Prizefighter. Last Friday on SmackDown, Owens attacked The Viper, dropping him with a banned piledriver. WWE later announced that Orton had been diagnosed with cervical cord neurapraxia and would be out of action indefinitely. On the Behind The Turnbuckle: The War Room podcast, wrestling veteran Jonathan Coachman questioned why the company wrote The Viper off television.
The former Interim RAW General Manager disclosed that he thinks Orton might be dealing with a legitimate neck injury:
"[Is it a shoot? Is his neck bothering him again or what?] That's what I thought," The Coach said. "Didn't he just miss some time with an injury? (...) This tells me there's something there, Tommy. And a lot of guys over the years because of the constant bumping, as we call it, they get the neck fusions. We've seen Stone Cold, Kurt Angle, The Brooklyn Brawler. I wonder if Randy's having some issues, which would suck for him. He just signed a new deal," he added. [7:53 - 8:47]
WWE Hall of Famer thinks Randy Orton should be out for a while
On the Busted Open podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Bully Ray addressed Kevin Owens' attack on Randy Orton on SmackDown. He pointed out that the company succeeded in making the piledriver seem like a big deal.
Meanwhile, the wrestling legend disclosed his desire to see Orton stay out for a while to sell the devastating move:
"I would love to see Randy [Orton] stay out for a little bit of time to really sell that piledriver. The last thing I wanna see is Randy back on TV quickly. The WWE did a great job of making that piledriver seem like a big deal as they should as that move deserves that credibility and that respect. So, I would love to see Randy on the shelf for a while. For a month to really sell that injury. Maybe Randy [is] in a neck brace, I don't know if that's too much," Ray said.
WWE analyst Sam Roberts suggested Orton could turn on Cody Rhodes upon his return after the latter beat Kevin Owens in a one-on-one match. It would be interesting to see if that would happen.
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