Monday night’s episode of WWE Raw went off the air with Seth Rollins lying prone in the ring, a victim of a savage beatdown by the debuting Samoa Joe. On Wednesday, the horrible news came in that Rollins had re-injured his surgically repaired knee during the attack, and may now be in danger os missing WrestleMania for the second straight year.
Late on Wednesday night, Dave Meltzer reported in the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Rollins’ right knee went out as Joe took Rollins down to apply the Coquina Clutch, and his feet were still moving, causing him to fall incorrectly. At this point, the diagnosis is believed to be a torn MCL.
Meltzer says “the early word” is that this is an injury that will keep Rollins out of action for up to eight weeks. If that timeline is accurate, that would put Rollins’ return right at the week before WrestleMania, which means there’s a chance. While Rollins isn’t exactly John Cena when it comes to superhuman healing powers, he has already returned from a reconstructed knee ahead of schedule once, so never count out Crossfit Jesus.
The Observer points out that if the timeline is accurate, and Rollins’ return does end up being that close of a call, WWE will likely err on the side of caution and hold Rollins out of action so as to not rush him back into the ring and risk further injury, or even potential litigation. Meltzer says his potential WrestleMania match against Triple H is “obviously in jeopardy,” so we’ll have to wait and see whether the “eight weeks” timeline ends up being accurate.
It seems like — in the short term, at least — we’re about to find out what WWE’s backup plans are.
