During Tuesday night’s episode of Smackdown Live, Zack Ryder was the last man standing in a tag team battle royal, making the Hype Bros the new No. 1 contenders to the Wyatt Family‘s Smackdown Tag Team Championship. That victory came at a price, however, as Ryder may have inadvertently ended up on the shelf while bringing the win home for his team.
Late Tuesday night, WWE.com broke the news that Ryder had suffered a knee injury in that battle royal.
On the Dec. 13 episode of SmackDown LIVE, Zack Ryder suffered an injury to his left knee. The injury took place when Long Island Iced-Z attempted a Rough Ryder in the same contest in which The Hype Bros won a Tag Team No. 1 Contenders’ Battle Royal. This victory gave them the right to challenge SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Wyatt Family.
After the match, Ryder was carried to the trainer’s room and is currently on crutches.
“We think he injured his kneecap or his patella. We think it popped out and then popped back in, so we’re just going to do an MRI to make sure that there is not cartilage damage or some tendon tearing, stuff like that,” according to WWE’s Dr. Chris Robinson. “Hopefully there’s not and it’ll be a shorter rehab period. If there is, there’s a different road we might have to go down that may take longer to get him to recover.”
Ryder managed to power his way through the injury and finish the match, although he sure didn’t do a lot of standing and celebrating when it was over. You can watch highlights of the match here:
If Ryder will be out longer than a few weeks, you can likely expect a new match to crown No. 1 contenders. Again.
Come on, 2016. We thought we were all done with WWE injuries. But I guess you had at least one more left in the tank. 2016 has definitely been the heel turn of years, hasn’t it? Bring on the Road to WrestleMania already, and pack all the wrestlers in bubble wrap until then.
