5 WWE Superstars Who Benefited From Somebody Else's Injury

It was confirmed this week that WWE Superstar Rowan will be out of action for up to six months after tearing his right bicep during The Bludgeon Brothers’ match against The New Day at SummerSlam.

The former Wyatt Family member missed the following night’s live event before featuring in a SummerSlam rematch in the main event of SmackDown Live on Tuesday, which The New Day won to reclaim the SmackDown Tag Team Championships.

According to PWInsider’s Mike Johnson, WWE had big plans for The Bludgeon Brothers after SummerSlam and they were originally supposed to keep hold of the tag titles until the extent of Rowan’s injury was revealed.

As is the case when a position opens up in WWE, The Bludgeon Brothers’ loss turned out to be Big E, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods’ gain, as they benefited from the unfortunate situation to become Tag Team champions for the fifth time as a trio.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at five WWE Superstars whose careers were helped by somebody else suffering an injury.

#5 Seth Rollins (Dean Ambrose injury)

In December 2017, Dean Ambrose was sidelined for eight months with a triceps injury, which meant the long-awaited reunion of The Shield was short-lived and Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns had to move on to other storylines.

In Reigns’ case, he was always going to have a singles storyline alongside his work with The Shield, so his eight-month chase of the Universal Championship probably would have been booked in a similar way with or without Ambrose on the roster.

As for Rollins, “The Kingslayer” moved into a tag team with Jason Jordan following Ambrose’s injury, while he went on to have one of the biggest WWE career resurgences we’ve seen in recent years in early 2018 – the Raw gauntlet match was a particular highlight – before competing in multiple Match of the Night contenders as a singles performer.

Had Ambrose not suffered his injury when he did, there’s a good chance that Rollins wouldn’t have been given the opportunity to reinvent himself as WWE’s most popular singles competitors over the last few months.

#4 Kevin Owens (Finn Balor injury)

Kevin Owens won the Universal title in 2016

One of the most famous examples of a WWE Superstar benefiting from somebody else’s injury came in August 2016 when Kevin Owens won the vacant Universal Championship in a Fatal 4-Way match, also involving Big Cass, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins, on Raw.

KO teamed with Chris Jericho against Cass and Enzo Amore at the previous week’s SummerSlam PPV and, at that stage of his career, it looked unlikely that he would hold one of the company’s major titles.

However, due to the long-term injury that Finn Balor suffered when he won the Universal Championship against Rollins at SummerSlam, the title was immediately vacated and Owens was crowned the new champion just a week later.

He went on to hold the title for the next six months, retaining against Superstars including Rollins and Reigns before losing against Goldberg at Fastlane 2017.

#3 The Miz (Bad News Barrett injury)

Much of The Miz’s early WWE career was spent chasing Tag Team Championships, the United States Championship and the WWE Championship, but he has now become synonymous with the Intercontinental Championship.

“The A-Lister” has won the title on eight occasions, with his first triumph coming at Raw 1000 in July 2012 when he defeated Christian, but it wasn’t until he benefited from an injury to Bad News Barrett in 2014 that he seriously began racking up multiple reigns as champion.

Barrett was forced to relinquish the title in June 2014 after suffering a shoulder injury, which allowed The Miz to become IC champ for the third and fourth times in his career over the next three months.

Miz’s triumphs that summer quickly made him one of the most decorated IC champions in WWE history – something that wouldn’t have happened, at least not at that stage of his career, if Barrett didn’t suffer his injury.

#2 Ryback (John Cena injury)

Ryback faced CM Punk for the WWE Championship

John Cena underwent surgery to repair an elbow injury in September 2012, ruling him out of the following month’s Hell In A Cell pay-per-view and putting a stop to his WWE Championship rivalry with CM Punk, meaning somebody needed to take his place.

At the time, previous title challengers Daniel Bryan and Kane were preoccupied in a tag team storyline and The Big Show, Alberto Del Rio, Sheamus and Randy Orton were all involved in other rivalries, so WWE turned to Ryback to fill the void left by Cena.

“The Big Guy” had only been a singles competitor on Raw and SmackDown for six months, with most of his matches ending in quick victories, and his meteoric rise to the top of the card wouldn't have happened so suddenly had it not been for Cena's injury.

He went on to lose against Punk at Hell In A Cell 2012, courtesy of controversial refereeing from Brad Maddox, and he spent most of the next eight months in major storylines with the likes of Cena and The Shield.

#1 Shane McMahon (multiple injuries)

Shane McMahon faced The Undertaker at WrestleMania 32

One of the most interesting examples of somebody benefiting from another person’s injury came in the build-up to WrestleMania 32 when Shane McMahon made a surprising return to WWE television.

Several main-roster stalwarts missed ‘Mania that year, including Seth Rollins, Cesaro, Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt, and it was expected that The Undertaker would face John Cena at the show until “Big Match John” was added to the ever-growing injury list a few months before the event.

With the roster decimated by injuries, Shane O’Mac returned in February 2016 and agreed to go one-on-one with “The Deadman” in a Hell In A Cell match in front of the largest WrestleMania crowd of all time.

Needless to say, if Cena and several other members of the roster didn’t suffer injuries at that time, Shane probably wouldn’t have made his in-ring comeback when he did.