The back problems of top star Randy Orton, already discussed by WWE on TV, are apparently actually worse than expected. Does he have to check off 2022?
How bad is it really for long-time WWE top star Randy Orton?
A few weeks ago on the TV show Monday Night RAW, his tag team partner Riddle shocked everyone by saying that the “Viper” had “barely been able to walk” recently. At the time, it still seemed like he was overdramatising for script reasons – but it doesn’t look like that anymore.
As reported by the portal Fightful, it is now expected ligaintern that the 42-year-old will have to undergo back surgery and will be out for the rest of the year. Orton had actually been suffering from severe problems prior to the big tag team title match against The Usos, which had “gotten progressively worse” since then.
Randy Orton: Big WWE match against Roman Reigns moot?
According to consistent media reports, WWE had actually planned to have Orton challenge WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns at SummerSlam in late July. That would then be void – and Orton’s long-term absence would be the next low blow for the league after that of Cody Rhodes, especially in the context of the new contract situation of top star Reigns, who will be seen far less often in WWE from this summer onwards.
On Saturday night’s Friday Night SmackDown TV show, Reigns will face Riddle – alongside whom 14-time WWE and World Champion Orton had reached a new, late-career heyday as a crowd favourite last year.
The pair had lost their tag team titles to The Usos at the end of May, after which Orton was written out of the shows for the time being by an attack from The Usos and their uncle Reigns. WWE had written afterwards in a statement – which was not clear if it was real or story – that Orton will now “consult with neurosurgeons and back orthopaedic experts on the severity of his injury and how it should be treated”.
