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WWE Rumors on Roman Reigns Injury, Rey Mysterio's Absence; Jericho on Cody's AEW Exit
April 12, 2022
Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from the WWE Universe and All Elite Wrestling.
Reigns Reportedly Wasn't Injured at WrestleMania
Despite speculation to the contrary, Roman Reigns reportedly didn't suffer an injury during his WrestleMania 38 main event match against Brock Lesnar.
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer said on the Sunday Night's Main Event podcast (h/t WrestlingInc's Marc Middleton), Reigns did not get injured at WrestleMania, and his match against Lesnar went off as planned.
There had been speculation that Reigns suffered a shoulder injury, thus forcing him and Lesnar to end the match sooner than intended, but that reportedly wasn't the case.
Reigns needed about 12 minutes to beat Lesnar with a spear, retaining the Universal Championship and winning the WWE Championship in the process.
Reigns is now the unified world champion, meaning he can appear on both SmackDown and Raw moving forward, which is something he has already done since WrestleMania.
On last week's SmackDown, Reigns was confronted by Shinsuke Nakamura, who appears to be The Head of the Table's first challenger coming out of WrestleMania.
A match has yet to be announced, but it seems likely that Nakamura will challenge Reigns for the titles at WrestleMania Backlash next month.
Meanwhile, Lesnar hasn't been seen since WrestleMania, and it is unclear when he will be brought back to WWE programming.
Regardless of Lesnar's status, there is little doubt that Reigns is the face of WWE currently, and he will continue to be presented as the top star in the weeks and months to come.
Rey Mysterio Missed Raw for Medical Reasons
WWE originally advertised Rey Mysterio to face Veer Mahaan on Monday's episode of Raw, but Rey did not appear on the show.
According to Meltzer (h/t Subhojeet Mukherjee of Ringside News), Mysterio was unavailable due to a "medical issue," which resulted in WWE changing up its plans.
Instead of Rey, his son Dominik Mysterio was Veer's opponent. Veer won the match in dominant fashion, which led to Dominik being taken backstage on a stretcher and loaded into an ambulance.
After months of teases, Veer finally appeared on last week's post-WrestleMania edition of Raw. He made his presence felt in a major way by attacking and decimating both Rey and Dominik Mysterio.
That attack occurred after Rey and Dominik suffered a defeat at the hands of The Miz and Logan Paul at WrestleMania.
At 47 years of age, Rey has essentially been relegated to helping his son develop, while also putting over other Superstars on the roster.
Rey almost certainly would have put over Veer on Monday, but with their match getting postponed, it seems likely that it will still occur at a later date with the same result.
Depending on how long Rey is out, a match between him and Veer at WrestleMania Backlash is a possibility.
Jericho Understands Rhodes' Decision to Leave AEW for WWE
AEW star Chris Jericho gave a diplomatic response when asked Monday about Cody Rhodes leaving AEW for WWE.
Appearing on SiriusXM's Busted Open (h/t WrestlingInc's Danny Wolstanholme), Jericho said the following about Cody's departure:
"I was honestly disappointed that he left. But, I get it. I've done it many times myself. You know this, we've discussed the reinvention of Jericho many times. I mean, I left WWE in 2017 for basically the same reason why Cody left AEW, from what I understand. He just didn't think he was getting the—I don't know if it's the spotlight or the respect or whatever the word being, but you could kind of see the writing on the walls.
"Obviously now, Cody is as bigger than he's ever been just by changing companies. And obviously, they did a great job in putting him over at WrestleMania, bringing him in at the highest of levels, and now it's up to Cody to do the dirty work shall we say and continue that momentum and get that job done. And can he do it? Absolutely. He's a very smart guy. He's a great performer."
Cody shocked the wrestling world in February when he announced he was leaving AEW despite being an executive vice president and one of the people chiefly responsible for creating the company.
Fans eagerly anticipated a return to WWE, and they got precisely that at WrestleMania when Rhodes arrived as Seth Rollins' mystery opponent and picked up a victory.
Remarkably, Rhodes had the same presentation in WWE as he did in AEW in terms of his gear, theme music, nickname and more.
Cody received a massive reaction from the fans at WrestleMania, and that has continued over the past two episodes of Raw, firmly establishing him as one of the top babyfaces in WWE.
In AEW, it seemed as though fans had grown tired of Cody, as evidenced by them routinely booing him despite him being a face.
Rhodes had essentially done all he could do in AEW, feuding with many of the top stars and holding the TNT Championship on multiple occasions. As a result, he felt it was the right time to go back to where it all started for him.
Cody has made it clear that his goal is to do what his father, WWE Hall of Famer Dusty Rhodes, never did, and that is winning the WWE Championship.
Based on how over he is with the WWE fanbase, it seems like it is a matter of when rather than if he wins the title.