WWE: Bobby Lashley Pulled from King of the Ring 2024 Over Injury, Update on Current Plans for Solo Sikoa & Concerns Over His Prior Booking, Randy Orton on Career Future

May 9, 2024

Bobby Lashley Pulled from King of the Ring 2024 Tournament Over Injury

SmackDown General Manager announced on Twitter earlier today that Bobby Lashley has been pulled from this year’s King of the Ring tournament due to Lashley recently suffering an injury and not being medically cleared to compete.

Aldis also announced that Angelo Dawkins will be Lashley’s official replacement for his scheduled First Round tournament match against Tama Tonga at this Friday’s SmackDown show.

Important Update ahead of tomorrow's #SmackDown KOTR matches: @WWE pic.twitter.com/c5Pkq7I1jq
— Nick ''Lâchez-Vous'' Aldis (@RealNickAldis) May 9, 2024

Backstage Update on WWE’s Current Plans for Solo Sikoa & Issues Over Sikoa’s Prior Booking

WrestleVotes reported that their sources stated that WWE’s current plans for Solo Sikoa is to establish him as “the main force” for their new phase of the Bloodline storyline.

It was reported that this was the reason for WWE’s recent booking showcasing an aggressive streak for Sikoa due to them wanting to establish it ahead of Jacob Fatu’s official debut in the company.

Those spoken to reportedly stated that there has been some trepidation within WWE’s creative over the fear that Fatu’s presence could outshine Sikoa at this stage. This fear is based on issues over WWE officials booking of Sikoa over the past year, including Sikoa lengthy winless streak on WWE television following his victory over John Cena this past November.

Interesting tidbit here: sources suggest that Solo Sikoa’s recent aggressive streak is part of a strategy to establish him as ‘the’ main force within this new phase of the Bloodline, ahead of Jacob Fatu’s debut.

However, some trepidation remains within creative over fear that…
— WrestleVotes (@WrestleVotes) May 8, 2024

Randy Orton Comments on Future of His Wrestling Career

A recent episode of the Adam’s Apple podcast featured Randy Orton as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Orton’s thoughts about the future of his wrestling career and his retirement plans.

“If you would have asked me two years ago, I would have thought I was close to the end. But I had spinal fusion about a year and a half ago. That changed the game. I had been in pain through my entire 30s and was hurting. I was begging for time off when I was 35. I think Vince’s [McMahon] quote to me was, ‘Mother nature gets us all.’ That’s hard to hear when you’re 35, and your back hurts, and you’re busting your ass for this company. There have been some changes. And now, I think instead of pushing the guys and running their dicks into the ground until they fall apart, there is a great atmosphere of ‘How can we make this guy last?’
The beauty of it is I’m not even there yet. I feel so great after my surgery. I’m a full-time guy. I don’t want to do the old Undertaker or Shawn Michaels schedule, which they needed to do, understandably. Wrestle at WrestleMania, take the summer off, maybe you see them at SummerSlam. I want to be on the road every week. I want to make all the TVs. I want to be on all the PLEs. At 44, I would love to be able to go until my 50s. Maybe I wrestle until I’m 50 and call it. That’s 30 years, 30 years with the same company, on top.”

Transcript h/t: WrestlingNews.co