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WWE Injury Updates on Braun Strowman, Rusev & Zack Ryder Returning to Action

By John Canton • Published 15th June 2017
TJR Wrestling

There’s good news on the WWE injury front because three superstars are ready to get back into the ring.

– Braun Strowman has been out of action for the past month due to elbow surgery that was expected to keep him out of action until mid-July. However, a report from PWInsider this week noted that “Strowman was cleared to return to WWE action a week ago and will be back as soon as WWE Creative plots his return into Raw storylines.”

You may recall that WWE said that Strowman will be out of action for “up to six months” even though they knew it would be way less than that. Why would they lie to us? Because that’s what they do. It’s a scripted television show that tells lies. Don’t let it bother you.

It was also reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Strowman is now scheduled to be in a match for the July 9 “Great Balls of Fire” pay-per-view.

While it’s not confirmed yet, I think it’s very likely that Roman Reigns will be in the ring his “SummerSlam announcement” this week when Strowman shows up as a surprise and attacks him leading to their third PPV encounter this year (Reigns won at Fastlane while Strowman won at Payback) at Great Balls of Fire. As we have reported in the last month, Strowman vs. Lesnar is likely for SummerSlam on August 20.

I’m glad Strowman is ready to come back. He’s been missed.

– Rusev has been cleared to return to action on Smackdown Live according to ProWrestlingSheet. They report that Rusev met with WWE doctors this week and was given the green light to return whenever WWE’s creative team has something for him to do.

Rusev has been out of action since March when he had a shoulder operation that was expected to sideline him 2-3 months. You may recall that Rusev did promos on Smackdown (that were originally from his Twitter) claiming he would only show up on Smackdown if he got a WWE Title match at Money in the Bank on June 18. They even went as far as having him say he would return to Smackdown “next week” at one point and then he wasn’t on the show.

The belief is that WWE originally wanted to do Orton vs. Rusev for the WWE Title at Money in the Bank, but that plan changed when the company decided to put the WWE Title on Jinder Mahal instead. That led to the Mahal/Orton rematch at Sunday’s Money in the Bank show.

Don’t expect WWE to offer much of an explanation for the Rusev storyline being dropped. They don’t care to do that with their storylines, which is a shame.

– Zack Ryder returned on this past week’s Smackdown in a backstage segment with his “Hype Bros” tag team partner Mojo Rawley. The duo also appeared on Talking Smack after Smackdown.

It was reported by ProWrestlingSheet that Ryder has been cleared to return after, as Ryder noted in the tweet above, rupturing his patellar tendon in his knee six months ago. That injury happened after he won a tag team battle royal to give the Hype Bros a tag title match that never happened. Ryder and Rawley claimed they wanted their tag title match that they were never given, so we’ll see if that happens in the near future.

It’s good to see Ryder back in action. He’s a hard working guy that loves the business as much as anyone and I hope he can have a great run now that he’s healthy. As I wrote in my Smackdown review, it may be a good time to turn him heel and see what he can do in that role.

That’s a summary of the key injury news in WWE. All of it is good news for a change. Here’s hoping all three superstars can return as good as ever and raise their games in the weeks and months ahead.

Remember kids, Braun Strowman is not finished with you.

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