Word out of WWE is that Daniel Bryan is not seeing good early returns from his rehab from minor neck surgery, and in fact is experiencing weakness in his right arm that would seem to indicate that there could be more to his injury than had originally been suspected.
Something that TNA has in common with WWE is an injury affecting the world title slot at the top of its card. MVP, slated to face TNA World Champion Eric Young at Sunday’s Slammiversary, suffered a knee injury in a match in the UK last month, and both MVP and TNA have been so silent on the nature of the injury that it is now assumed that it could be bad enough to force MVP out of the match.
Problem there is, TNA has taken to taping its shows several weeks in advance, and the Slammiversary go-home show is already in the can. So as easy as it should be to replace MVP with Bobby Roode or Samoa Joe, eh, not so fast there.
Not that WWE has much of an advantage with its next big event still a couple of weeks off. It was being assumed that Bryan would be back for Money in the Bank, and WWE was already booking a Bryan vs. Kane Buried Alive match for that show, but this week it was announced that if Bryan isn’t able to defend at MITB, then the Money in the Bank match itself will be used to fill the world title that he would be forced to vacate.
Which is all well and good, except that it’s clear that WWE had been building its summer around Bryan, with plans for Bryan to defend at SummerSlam against Brock Lesnar in a surefire money match.
TNA doesn’t lose as much having MVP possibly on the shelf. Eric Young was likely to retain against him at Slammiversary anyway, so the issue being faced by TNA is more of a short-term nature.
Still stinks to have built up to what you think is a money match at the end of a six-month program pushing MVP at the top of the card that now seems like it will result in nothing in terms of payoff.
– Column by Chris Graham
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