Randy Orton out of WWE Backlash match against Bray Wyatt

[Big Red Machine]

Source: www.F4WOnline.com

By Josh Nason | @joshnason | Sep 11, 2016 1:27 pm
Randy Orton

The Internet was abuzz Sunday with unconfirmed rumors that former WWE champion and Smackdown star Randy Orton may be off Sunday's Backlash PPV.

Our Dave Meltzer confirmed the story and indeed, Orton is out as he hasn't been cleared to wrestle. There is no word yet on how the show lineup will change.

The story began with a tweet from a Pro Wrestling Sheet reporter that he was told Orton was off the show, nursing an undisclosed injury that he still hasn't been cleared from. PWInsider's Mike Johnson then ran a confirmation, adding that the injury is concussion related.

Meltzer has additional details:

"Since then, we had several people within the company say that they believed (Orton off the show) was the case but were unable to say with certainty. It has not been confirmed exactly what the injury is, although Orton took a legitimate beating from Lesnar's elbows on the ground, which sliced him up (at SummerSlam).

WWE hasn't responded regarding the question. Kane subbed for Orton on Sunday's show in Raleigh, NC. Unless they were to bring in a surprise, he'd be the most likely replacement."

Orton was scheduled to face Bray Wyatt on the first PPV of the brand split era, headlined by WWE Champion Dean Ambrose vs. AJ Styles. As of now, he is scheduled to rematch Lesnar on September 24th on a WWE Chicago, IL, house show.

[cero2k]

If he's not that banged up, I'm not sure why they just wouldn't do a no contest and have Orton decimate Rowan with a chair or something, magic powers and shit

[Big Red Machine]

This is a perfect example of WWE still not having the correct mentality for how to make things matter. If Randy is legit injured from his match with Lesnar, then let him be kayfabe injured, too, and keep him off of TV. There was no reason to schedule the Orton vs. Wyatt match so soon. If Randy is hurt coming out of SummerSlam don't announce Orton vs. Bray at Backlash and then just hope he'll be ready in time! Keep him off of TV, use backlash to give Bray an important win (plus you could have stuck him and Rowan in the tag team tournament- they are coming off of a victory over the WWE Tag Team Champions at Battleground- as an impressive first-round victory for American Alpha) build someone up for Bray to beat at Backlash and when Randy is ready, you can announce Bray vs. Orton for No Mercy.

Instead, they announced a match which they couldn't build up with any physicality and now can't even deliver, which not only hurts Backlash, but will hurt the feud when Randy gets back because it will feel completely disjointed.

[Big Red Machine]

If he's not that banged up, I'm not sure why they just wouldn't do a no contest and have Orton decimate Rowan with a chair or something, magic powers and shit

Because that doesn't explain why the match doesn't get booked for, say, Tuesday's Smackdown.

Also, they just did that at the last PPV with Roman and Rusev.