WWE Reportedly Expects Randy Orton To Miss Rest Of 2022

WWE may be without Randy Orton for the remainder of 2022.

According to a report from Fightful Select (h/t WrestlingNews.co), WWE officials fear that “The Viper” could be sidelined until 2023 after a recent hiatus failed to alleviate his back injury: “Orton has been working through a back injury for a while and the decision was made a few weeks ago to pull him off television to allow him to heal up. Fightful Select reports it got to the point where he actually had work done to improve his condition before the tag team title unification match on the May 20th edition of WWE SmackDown, although it’s unclear of the extent of the ‘work’ that was done.”

While Orton’s father indicates that Orton may be able to return sooner than expected, Fightful Select added, “Things have gotten progressively worse, and WWE fears that Orton will be forced to undergo surgery,” which would likely prevent him from wrestling for the rest of the year. Of course, a lengthy hiatus for Orton would result in wholesale changes to WWE’s upcoming creative plans.

Orton has spent much of the past year as one of WWE’s hottest stars and had been penciled in for a blockbuster SummerSlam match against Roman Reigns, the latter of which is now working a reduced schedule despite holding both of WWE’s world titles, now a unified title known as the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship.

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Reigns’ absence from WWE programming has been quite noticeable because the top stars on both Raw and SmackDown have all been left without a world title to pursue. Orton is one of the few stars who has been built up as a believable challenger for Reigns at a time when WWE’s main event picture is remarkably thin, especially on the heels of the injury to Cody Rhodes that could keep him out of action for nine months.

With Reigns rarely around, Rhodes gone and Orton potentially following suit, WWE has been hit with a triple whammy, essentially losing three of its biggest male stars while Sasha Banks is on the outs with the company as well. Any which way you slice that pie, it’s not difficult to see that the timing of Orton’s injury and likely absence couldn’t be any worse.

One could argue that Orton is in the midst of his biggest-ever career resurgence as a babyface, thanks to his unlikely partnership with Riddle as RKBro. WWE has really struggled with creating new top babyfaces in recent years, and after gutting its roster by releasing more than 80 stars in 2021, the company now finds itself in a self-induced pickle with no simple exit strategy.

Orton’s injury also continues a recent rash of injuries in both WWE and AEW, which has seen stars like CM Punk, Adam Cole and Bryan Danielson all sidelined recently, albeit for vastly differing time frames. The biggest difference is that AEW, while not as top heavy as WWE, has a much deeper roster that can more than make up for the absences of stars like Punk and Danielson.

WWE, on the other hand, is also missing top acts like Brock Lesnar while continuing to rely on only a handful of names as consistent main eventers, which makes the loss of stars like Orton a much bigger blow to WWE’s overall star power. With WWE also stuck in a creative rut for what feels like forever now, it’s hard for WWE to consistently maintain strong TV viewership or attract fans to Peacock when its storylines are uninteresting and its roster, though talented, falls victim to repetitive matches.

Now, it’s back to the drawing board for WWE, who will have to come up with a Plan B at SummerSlam for Reigns and find a way to push a new star—whoever that may be—to the level that Rhodes and Orton have been at in 2022.

And that, as we know, is much easier said than done.