Backstage News On The Decision To Pull Randy Orton From WWE Backlash, Update On His Status
As noted, Randy Orton was pulled from his match against Bray Wyatt at last night's WWE Backlash pay-per-view because he has not been cleared to return to the ring following the TKO loss to Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam on August 21st. Orton did work a backstage beatdown angle with Wyatt last night, and later hit the RKO on Wyatt before Wyatt's loss to Kane.
WWE officials were aware of Orton's issues with being cleared at least a week ago, according to PWInsider. There has been some speculation on if the injury is concussion-related or not but PWInsider says it definitely is. Orton has passed some of the Impact concussion testing that is needed to get cleared but he was not passing them consistently enough to where company doctors felt he was good to go for a match. The decision was made to hold off on the match and not make things worse for Orton.
Orton taking the backstage beating from Wyatt and then delivering the RKO to Wyatt had some people scratching their heads last night. Many, including Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez on Wrestling Observer Radio, were surprised that Orton was allowed to do the RKO if he did have a concussion, adding to speculation that it may have been the staples in his head that kept Orton from being cleared.