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What's the story?
Randy Orton has not been a part of WWE SmackDown for a while now. His last in-ring appearance was in a match against Aleister Black in the live events. Orton's absence from the ring was noticed, but it was assumed he was taking time off from WWE for a while.
However, according to a report by Fightful, Orton has been suffering from an injury to his neck. As a result, he was given time off WWE television to heal up as well as spend his vacation time. Now it appears that there is an update about his return.
In case you didn't know...
Randy Orton was part of the Money in the Bank match at the pay-per-view of the same name earlier in the year in May. Since then, he has not made too many televised appearances, with his only appearances being for the build-up of his match against Triple H at WWE Super ShowDown and at Super ShowDown itself.
Other than this, he appeared on the live events in a spree of matches against Aleister Black, the last of which was on the 10th of June. Ever since then, he has been absent from WWE television on either SmackDown Live or RAW.
The heart of the matter
According to the report by Fightful, during his match with Aleister Black, Orton jammed his neck against him. It was diagnosed last week that he was dealing with a neck injury. After jamming his neck he had vacation time coming up and was given an extra two weeks to heal up.
It appears that he could be back as soon as tonight. He was slated to appear on last night's live event, but due to travel issues was unable to do so. He is expected to appear on tonight's live event.
The injury itself was not considered to be serious but given his history with neck injuries, it was better to be safe than sorry. On top of that, there were no immediate plans for Orton on WWE TV.
What's next?
Randy Orton is expected to appear on tonight's live event. He might also appear on SmackDown this week. Could he be the man who knocked on Aleister Black's door? We will have to wait to find out.
What role do you think Randy Orton might play upon returning? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
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