Last night on Monday Night Raw, “The Man That Gravity Forgot” took on Y2J, Chris Jericho. The match seemed to be going fine, until Neville executed a baseball slide awkwardly. This led to the match being ended early, after Jericho forced himself to get disqualified to show referee Charles Robinson that Neville was legitimately hurt. WWE announced that Neville suffered a fractured ankle, which means he will definitely miss WrestleMania, and will likely be out for up to 6 months.
Neville getting injured on Monday Night Raw is just another WWE talent on the growing list of injured competitors. Here are all the WWE Superstars and Divas that are currently injured as of this writing.
John Cena
John Cena suffered a torn rotator cuff a couple of months ago, and had surgery, which he is currently recovering from. Fans and dirtsheets speculated whether or not John Cena would defy science as he normally does and return ridiculously early for WrestleMania 32, but Cena has confirmed that he will not be competing at “The Grandest Stage of Them All.” Even though he will miss WrestleMania, Cena is expected to be back in a couple of months, especially if his rapid progress in training has any indications.
Nikki Bella
Over the past year, Nikki Bella has been rumored to have been working matches with nagging, but minor, injuries. Over time, this might have caught up to her, as she had to have neck surgery after she dropped the Divas Championship to Charlotte. After having surgery, Nikki Bella has been in a neck brace ever since, and hopes to be out of the brace in about a month. There is still a long road to recovery, especially since neck injuries should not be taken lightly.
Seth Rollins
Seth Rollins won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship by cashing in his Money in the Bank contract at WrestleMania 31, defeating both Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar. Since then, Rollins would have nothing but successful title defenses, which included matches against the likes of John Cena and Sting (in the same night, too). Riding a huge wave of momentum, Rollins ended up tearing his ACL, MCL, and medial meniscus in his knee while attempting a sunset flip powerbomb to the 300+ pound Kane at a house show. Rollins would have to vacate the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, and has been put on the shelf ever since. Fortunately, Rollins is rumored to have been recently back in a wrestling ring training, so a Rollins return could be relatively soon.
Cesaro
Cesaro was finally starting to build momentum for himself in 2015, but was unfortunately halted by a torn rotator cuff in November. Perhaps one of the best in-ring performers, Cesaro’s injury was a big blow to the mid-card, as well as the tag team division. He recently stated in an interview that he hopes to be back in a WWE ring in a couple of months.
Tyson Kidd
The other half of the “Brass Ring Club,” Tyson Kidd was injured in June of 2015, after taking a botched muscle buster from Samoa Joe in a Raw dark match. After suffering a severe neck injury, Kidd would be out of action for over a year. According to Kidd, “5% of people survive this injury,” so it is amazing that Kidd survived, and is even well enough to eventually come back to wrestling. There is no timetable on his return as of now, but we can only wish him a speedy recovery.
Randy Orton
There aren’t a lot of details on why Randy Orton is currently off WWE television, but it seems to be a shoulder injury. “The Viper” has been out since September, and we can only hope he will be back soon to fill some gaps in the roster.
Sting
At Night of Champions, Sting would face a fatigued Seth Rollins for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship (immediately after Rollins defeated John Cena in a 30-minute match). Rollins delivered his signature powerbomb toss into the turnbuckle, and Sting suffered a neck injury, and the match ended soon after. Sting announced on Ric Flair’s podcast that he needed surgery to fix cervical spinal stenosis, and has not been seen on WWE television since. Sting was announced as the first inductee of the WWE 2016 Hall of Fame Class, and the induction ceremony will probably be the first time we see Sting since his injury.
With only a few weeks to WrestleMania, the list of injured WWE talent is a depressing one. I could only imagine what WWE would have planned for WrestleMania if their biggest stars (Rollins, Cena, Orton, and Sting) would have all been healthy. Would we have a different opponent for the Undertaker, or even a different WWE World Heavyweight Championship match? Luckily, all of these competitors (with the exception of Nikki Bella) are almost guaranteed to return this year, and we can only hope that this list starts getting shorter instead of longer.
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