With the recent news about Randy Orton’s big injury going into the summer, WWE is quickly losing all of it’s main event muscle. WWE injuries in recent months include Cody Rhodes, Randy Orton and Big E, with Roman Reigns also taking an extended time out of the ring for undisclosed reasons.
WWE have had a number of plans scuppered in recent months due to big injuries. Big E looked set for a Wrestlemania match with Bobby Lashley, or even Brock Lesnar, over the WWE Championship. However, he suffered a horrific neck break in a match on Smackdown against Ridge Holland and has been out of action ever since.
With Big E out of action, WWE had to pivot and change their title plans. They gave the Championship to Roman Reigns to carry both the WWE Championship and Universal Championship across both WWE shows. He defeated Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania to become the champion of both Raw and Smackdown.
To help ease the burden on the main event scene, Cody Rhodes returned to WWE and was immediately placed as the top face of the company. He seemed destined for a match with Roman Reigns at Summerslam 2022, but it was sadly not to be.
Despite defeating Seth Rollins three matches on the trot, Cody Rhodes will be on the shelf for at least 9 months according to reports. Before Hell in a Cell 2022, he tore his pectoral muscle clean off the bone. It was a horrific injury, but The American Nightmare pushed through and put on a five star match, with effectively only one arm in play.
Cody Rhodes will likely return at the 2022 Royal Rumble but for the time being, his omission from the company due to injury has left WWE with a dearth of top faces to challenge Roman Reigns. While Riddle is facing his for the WWE title on Smackdown, he was not the intended challenger for the Big Dog.
Randy Orton was the favourite to face Roman Reigns at Summerslam 2022 after Cody Rhodes injury, but the curse of the top face befell him also. A back injury has took him out of action, adding to the now exhaustive list of WWE injuries. Experts fear that Orton could miss the rest of 2022 due to his injury and this is bad news for the WWE main event scene.
WWE has already had to change their plans due to the Cody Rhodes injury, but the added Orton abscence will force them to change course again. After learning about the length of time Rhodes would be out, the decision was made to turn Edge face and split him up from his stable Judgement Day.
Edge is one of the few full-time performers who can believably take on Roman Reigns at the moment, owing to his history as a multi-time WWE Champion. He was one of the top heels in the company but now he will be required ton be the ultimate good guy to try and dethrone Reigns, something he failed to do in the main event of Wrestlemania 37.
The option is there to turn Seth Rollins face too and have him face Reigns again, in a rematch of their encounter at the Royal Rumble this year. Rollins won that match by Count Out, so he will be the biggest threat to Roman Reigns world titles in a long, long time.
With all the men mentioned having no clear estimated time for return, the Royal Rumble could even be too soon for the WWE injured men. Cody Rhodes would have been the favourite to win the match, so now the winner of the famous Royal Rumble match is up in the air.
This could be an exciting time for WWE, Vince McMahon abuse allegations not-withstanding. WWE will be forced to push new stars and build up challengers for Roman Reigns, which could see wrestlers like Madcap Moss and Butch pushed into the main event scene, at least for one pay per view.
Sadly, WWE injuries has made us miss out on Cody Rhodes continuing the run of his life and we hope that he can continue to put on five star matches once he returns from injury.