Injury Update For AEW Star & ROH Champ Bandido
Current AEW Tag Team and ROH World Champion Bandido made another successful trip to Arena Mexico on October 3, successfully defending his ROH World Championship against Hechicero at CMLL's weekly "Viernes Espectacular" event, but the champion didn't leave at 100%. Bandido confirmed that he had dislocated his shoulder during the match, but was able to wrestle regardless and defend his championship. However, Bandido and Brody King are set to wrestle Kazuchika Okada and Konosuke Takeshita on the special episode of "AEW Dynamite" that takes place on Tuesday, October 7. Will Bandido be able to wrestle? According to Dave Meltzer on a recent episode of "Wrestling Observer Radio," that answer is still up in the air.
"I don't know if he's going to be able to wrestle..." Meltzer said. "If that match happens, I don't know. He left the building in a sling...The whole story [of the Hechicero match] was working on the shoulder, working on the shoulder and everything like that, and then he comes out [victorious]. So I know people who are very sceptical, I mean the doctor came out and the doctor nearly stopped the match, but that played into the match. But he left in a sling, said that he separated his shoulder, he popped it in. I mean if he's injured, he's not wrestling on Tuesday, so if he's wrestling on Tuesday it's probably a match storyline. The match in theory will be jeopardy, if he's really injured I don't see how he will wrestle by Tuesday."
Hechicero is a member of The Don Callis Family along with Okada and Takeshita, so there is every chance that there is more of a storyline element to the injury than meets the eye. With that said, if Bandido can't compete on "Dynamite," plans will have to change. Originally, if Bandido or Brody King won, the person who scored the winning fall would challenge Okada for the AEW Unified Championship at WrestleDream on October 18. However, if Okada and Takeshita won, they would get an AEW Tag Team Championship match instead.
Please credit "Wrestling Observer Radio" when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.