WWE Rumors: Randy Orton's Back Injury and Severity Causing 'a Lot of Concern'

People within WWE are reportedly worried about the health of Randy Orton, who has been out of action since May with a back injury.

According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (h/t Subhojeet Mukherjee of Ringside News), there is "a lot of concern" in the company when it comes to Orton's injury and the severity of it.

Orton's last appearance was on the May 20 episode of SmackDown. On that show, Orton and Matt Riddle dropped the Raw Tag Team Championships to The Usos in a title unification match.

That ended a run of dominance atop the Raw tag team division for RK-Bro, as they had held the titles for over 200 days in two reigns since first winning the straps at SummerSlam 2021.

Orton has been mentioned on WWE programming from time to time during his absence, normally by Riddle, but there has been no indication regarding where or when The Viper might return to the fold.

After RK-Bro dropped the titles, Meltzer (h/t Andrew Ravens of WrestlingNews.co) reported that WWE was planning to have Orton challenge Roman Reigns for the undisputed WWE Universal Championship at SummerSlam.

That never came to pass, presumably due to Orton's injury, and Reigns faced Brock Lesnar in a Last Man Standing match instead.

Orton has been on WWE's main roster since 2002 and is 42 years of age, but over the past few years, it can be argued that he has done the best work of his career.

RK-Bro was incredibly over with the WWE Universe as a tag team as well, which is why the timing of Orton's injury was less than ideal.

Orton is a future Hall of Famer and one of the most decorated Superstars in WWE history with 14 world title reigns to his credit, and he is always a threat to vie for and win the top title when he is around.

It remains unclear when Orton will be healthy enough to wrestle again, but the Royal Rumble in January would be a logical target since he would receive a huge reaction as a surprise entrant if he is cleared to compete.

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