WWE Rumors on Liv Morgan's Injury, Evolution, Rey Mysterio and SmackDown Time Change
Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from the WWE Universe.
Liv Morgan Injury Reportedly Prompts Evolution Changes
Liv Morgan going down with an injury on Monday night's episode of Raw is reportedly expected to necessitate some significant creative changes within WWE.
Early in her match against Kairi Sane, Morgan hit the mat hard with her hands while taking a bump and immediately began nursing her arm. The match was stopped while a doctor tended to Morgan, and it was determined that she could not continue.
According to WrestleVotes (h/t Subhojeet Mukherjee of Ringside News), Morgan dislocated her shoulder and is expected to be out for three months.
In a follow-up, WrestleVotes (h/t Mukherjee) noted that Morgan's injury has caused the card for the upcoming Evolution premium live event to be "ripped up and start[ed] from scratch."
Last week on Raw, Morgan confronted WWE Hall of Famer Nikki Bella, who made her WWE return and announced her intention to compete at Evolution.
At that point it was widely assumed Evolution would either feature a singles match between Morgan and Bella or a tag team match with Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez putting the WWE Women's Tag Team Championships on the line against Nikki and a partner.
While it isn't known for sure, there have been rumors and speculation about Nikki's twin sister, Brie Bella, returning to either team with her or be in her corner for Evolution.
With Liv unable to compete at Evolution, it creates some major question marks regarding what will happen with Nikki and the women's tag team titles.
Nikki could still vie for the titles against Raquel and a new partner or an entirely different team, or WWE could go another route and have Nikki take part in something that doesn't involve the tag championships.
Whatever the case, Morgan's injury has caused "a lot of ripple effects" throughout the Evolution card.
The event is less than a month away on July 13, so while there is still some time to make changes and put together a quality event, the build has to start imminently.
Reported Timeline for Rey Mysterio's Return from Injury
Rey Mysterio has been out of action since the SmackDown before WrestleMania 41, but his return date may be coming into focus.
Speaking this week on his Keepin' It 100 podcast (h/t Steve Carrier of Ringside News), Mysterio's friend and fellow wrestling legend Konnan said Mysterio is expected to return in August.
Mysterio announced back in April that he underwent surgery for a torn abductor muscle suffered during a six-man tag team match that saw him, Rey Fenix and Dragon Lee beat Chad Gable and the Creed Brothers.
While Mysterio was supposed to face El Grande Americano one day later at WrestleMania 41, he was not cleared to compete, so Fenix took his place.
Earlier this month, Mysterio was on hand for the Worlds Collide event in Inglewood, California, which featured talent from both WWE and AAA.
Although he was unable to wrestle, Mysterio cut a promo at the start of the show and explained the importance of the collaboration.
Konnan, who is part of the AAA booking committee, was on commentary with Corey Graves for the event, and he figures to be a big part of what WWE and AAA do together moving forward.
Mysterio, 50, is already a WWE Hall of Famer, but he continues to perform at a high level when healthy, and there is seemingly no immediate end in sight to his career.
It isn't clear what WWE's plans are for Mysterio when he returns, but Konnan said this week that he will be involved in future WWE-AAA events.
SmackDown Reportedly Returning to 2 Hours
SmackDown has been a three-hour show since its full-time move to USA Network in January, but that is reportedly set to change soon.
According to PWInsider.com (h/t Mukherjee), SmackDown is expected to return to a two-hour format just a couple of weeks from now on July 4.
Earlier this month, Joe Otterson of Variety reported that a new show called Rainmaker was scheduled to debut on USA Network on Aug. 15 at 10 p.m. ET.
Since Aug. 15 is a Friday and SmackDown runs until 11 p.m. ET, that immediately led to speculation about SmackDown's fate.
PWInsider has since confirmed that a return to two hours is coming, which figures to be a popular opinion among fans.
Until this year, SmackDown was a two-hour show for the entirety of its existence, but things changed once the television deal with USA Network went into effect.
While USA Network lost its rights to Raw when WWE struck a deal with Netflix, it maintained plenty of stake in the WWE product by landing the broadcasting rights to SmackDown.
Raw was a three-hour show on USA Network, and shifting SmackDown from two hours to three this year meant that USA still had the same amount of WWE programming.
However, amid rumors for months about SmackDown going back to two hours eventually, it looks like the change is finally on the verge of happening.
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