It's the one day of year that you never want to be gone from work. But for one WWE superstar, he's forced with a sobering holiday wakeup call.
Randy Orton has received some news that could heavily dampen his holiday spirit. He could miss up to six months of in-ring action, which means he will most likely miss WrestleMania 28 in Miami. On the grandest stage, which he has been on every year since WrestleMania XX, Orton will probably be sitting at home taking care of what appears to be a very injured back.
Orton faced former NEXUS leader Wade Barrett during the "SmackDown!" tapings on Tuesday night in Indianapolis in a Falls Count Anywhere match. Without spoiling the details of the match, which you can see this Friday night on the SyFy Network, Orton found himself in the midst of a nasty fall, that surely didn't do anything to alleviate his condition.
He has reportedly been working through back pain for several weeks, and was put into situations that didn't require a lot of stress and strain on an already injuredy body. Word going around the WWE as of 11:30pm CST on Wednesday evening was that Orton may have possibly torn a disk in his back, but that had yet to be confirmed.
Either way, that effectively boots any chance of Orton appearing at the Royal Rumble in a few weeks, which is held in his hometown of St. Louis, and it will more than likely erase any hope of appearing in his eight consecutive WrestleMania extravaganza.
The injury was announced to the crowd at Wednesday night's WWE live event in Detroit, Michigan. Reports from the event noted that WWE offered refunds to fans who attended the event to see WWE's resident "Viper" in action.
Several reports started appearing online Wednesday evening that the injury may have just been a cover-up for Orton allegedly failing WWE's Wellness Test for a third time. If that had been the case, Orton would be looking at certain termination as WWE holds a 3-strike rule pertaining to their Wellness Policy that has already seen suspensions for several WWE stars over the last year. Most recently, Evan Bourne and R-Truth were affected by suspensions resulting from failing the Wellness Test. Those reports began disappearing almost as quick as they were being posted.
No official word has been released on Orton's official return date, but the outlook at this point has him out for at least six months. For WWE, it means a major hit to an already strained "SmackDown!" roster. For members of that particular roster, it gives any number of guys the chance to take a golden opportunity to step into the spotlight and show fans they have what it takes. Either way, the next several weeks will be very interesting around the WWE Universe.
As far as upcoming events, it has been reported that Sheamus will take Oton's spot in Street Fight matches against Wade Barrett. Also for live events, members of the "Monday Night Raw" roster will fill-in spots on "SmackDown!" events to even things up and provide a quality show for fans in attendance.
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