WWE: Randy Orton on Some Neurologists Told Him to Retire from Wrestling After Back Injury, New Uncle Howdy Announcement Teased for Thursday, More News

Randy Orton Comments on Being Told by Some Neurologists to Stop Wrestling After His Back Injury

A recent episode of Sportskeeda’s WrestleBinge podcast featured Randy Orton as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Orton revealing that some neurologists had told him that he needed to retire from wrestling following his back injury and surgery in 2022 for the future of his own well-being.

“I had top neurologists telling me that, ‘You know what, you had a great career, you have a life after wrestling, and you wanna be comfortable. You don’t wanna be in pain the rest of your life. We’re gonna fix your back, but you’re gonna have to stop wrestling.’ The first six months that I was out, I had that in the back of my head, and it was tough. It was mentally very challenging.

Didn’t really know what the future held for me, but I was able to find a couple of doctors that had done the exact surgery that I needed on some MMA guys that went back to the Octagon, competed, and were successful and had longer careers, so I knew that these were the doctors that I needed to have put me under and go under the knife with.”

Transcript h/t: Sportskeeda.com

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New Uncle Howdy QR Code Teases Another New Announcement This Thursday on Twitch

As noted before, a recent QR code teaser for Bo Dallas and Uncle Howdy’s upcoming return to WWE featured an image that included the words “WhatsApp” and a date of May 22nd.

This teaser was revealed to be in the form of WWE’s WhatsApp account being “hacked” on Wednesday and a series of images posted featuring several messages. One of the messages was “Remember who you are.” Other notes with messages when put together form “Thursday 8PM EST Twitch.”

Uncle Howdy took over WWE’s WhatsApp.

“I CAN’T WAIT TO MEET YOU.”

If you put all the little words together you get ‘8PM EST THURSDAY TWITCH'

There will be another streamed message tomorrow at 8pm EST on WWE’s Twitch channel. ⭕️ 👀 pic.twitter.com/MWK6oljDgL

— 𝐃𝐫𝐚𝐕𝐞𝐧 (@WrestlingCovers) May 22, 2024

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WWE News & Notes

Wednesday’s WWE Speed episode on Twitter featured Tyler Bate defeating Apollo Crews in the Finals of the WWE Speed Championship #1 Contender tournament. As a result of his victory, Bate will challenge Ricochet for the WWE Speed title on this Friday’s episode of WWE Speed.

Deadline reported that their sources stated that Big E recently joined the cast for a new comedy television series titled Laid for Peacock.

WWE reportedly held a new talent tryout at their Performance Center earlier this week, according to PWInsider. Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that WWE had invited athletes from outside of the wrestling sphere for this new tryout.

WrestleVotes reported that their sources stated that WWE’s The Bump show on YouTube will be going on a five-week hiatus after this week’s episode. It was reported that the reason for the hiatus is so that the show can transition to taking place at WWE’s new headquarters going forward starting on July 3th.

A24 production studio recently released a first look teaser of their upcoming The Smashing Machine film starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Emily Blunt. Fightful’s Skylar reported that A24 is currently targeting a December 2024 release date for their film.

Alba Fyre announced on Instagram that her mother recently passed away. Fyre stated “The world won’t be the same without you 💔 love you mum ❤️“

As noted before, a recent QR code teaser for Bo Dallas and Uncle Howdy’s upcoming return to WWE featured an image with the coordinates for Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey meant to be a tease of Erick Rowan’s upcoming return to WWE as well. Rowan University recently responded on Twitter asking WWE if they were going to visit their campus soon. The university stated “.@WWE are you planning to visit campus?? 🤔“

WWE recently announced that rapper Sexy Red will be making an appearance for the company at next week’s NXT show on May 28th at the Performance Center.

WWE also recently announced four matches for the card of next week’s NXT show on May 28th:

• NXT Women’s North American Championship Ladder Qualifying match – Wren Sinclair vs. Kelani Jordan
• NXT Women’s North American Championship Ladder Qualifying match – Tatum Paxley vs. Michin
• Je’Von Evans & Trick Williams vs. Gallus (Mark Coffey & Wolfgang)
• Ridge Holland vs. Riley Osbourne

WWE also recently announced one new match for the card of next week’s WWE RAW show on May 27th in Savannah, Georgia:

• Braun Strowman vs. JD McDonagh