The hard knocks for Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champion Kevin Owens during Monday night’s “Raw” are reportedly more than just a storyline.
Owens was in the corner of his tag team partner Sami Zayn as Zayn challenged Dominik Mysterio for the “NXT” North American Championship. Various shenanigans eventually led to Owens being ejected from ringside by the referee. Moments later, Mysterio’s Judgment Day cohorts Rhea Ripley and Damian Priest were also ordered backstage. However, all three reappeared at the end of the match as Owens was taken out by Ripley and Priest on the entrance stage. That was the distraction that led to Mysterio’s pinfall victory over Zayn.
Later in the show, Owens was seen backstage being tended to by medical personnel. It appeared to be nothing more than another chapter in the story leading to a future tag title defense for Owens and Zayn against some combination of The Judgment Day. However, there’s reportedly more at play.
Later in the night, Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp reported that Owens is legitimately injured. Sapp added that he did not have any details on the severity of the injury or when Owens will be able to return to action.
Owen’s most recent match took place on the July 17 episode of “Raw,” where he and Zayn retained the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship against The Judgment Day’s Priest and Mysterio.
UPDATE:
Dave Meltzer provided further details about the setback while speaking on the “Wrestling Observer Radio” show.
“It’s a fractured rib,” Meltzer said. “So the story, he’s actually been working on it for a while and it was just one of those things where they were waiting for a time to finish up with everything he’d finish up….He’s gonna get rest. I don’t know how long, and I don’t know what the status of the Tag Team Titles are. I’m sure that that will probably all be addressed in the next couple of days, but it was legit, he’s been working on a legit injury. So that’s the basic gist of the story there.”
Source: Wrestling Inc.
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