Best in the World, Another Injury, and Rollins is the new Randy

WWE’s champions are dropping like flies.  This is a problem.

Last year, World Heavyweight Champion Dolph Ziggler went down with a concussion, then went tumbling down the card.  He’s only now starting to recover, and it’s only to build him as a possible contender in the Money in the Bank match.  Watch him get the Tyson Kidd treatment afterwards.

Daniel Bryan is a three time WWE World Heavyweight Champion.  A neck injury cut short what looked to be his first REAL reign.  It may be a while before he gets another shot at the top.

Now, SPOILER ALERT, Bad News Barrett has reportedly gotten some…bad news.  Rumor has it that #BNB suffered a shoulder injury at Tuesday’s Smackdown tapings, when he was thrown into the barricade by Jack Swagger.

Now, it’s not clear how much of the injury is kayfabe. It’s not clear how serious the injury could be (though I’ve read separated shoulder, which would be some SERIOUSLY bad news).  It’s not clear what this means for Wade Barrett’s future, or the future of his Intercontinental title.

If you think this is “just another injury,” well, (Triple H loves this part) I’M AFRAID I’VE GOT SOME BAD NEWS.

If you’ve noticed, that’s three WORKRATE guys who have gotten hurt, seriously, at a time where they’ve been handed the ball and told to run.  WWE has never given a damn about workrate guys (ignoring Michaels and Hart, and that was during an era of admitted desperation.)  They’re the indy darlings, the Internet wet dreams, the guys that are signed to get the guys WWE wants over, over.

And, from WWE’s perspective, they keep dropping the ball.

All three men, and others before them, have been given the shot to rise above “jobber to the stars” status, and become more than they’re “Supposed to” be in the corporate world of Sports Entertainment.  The world of all three men caught up with them, when their presence mattered the most.

I wouldn’t be shocked if the workrate guys stop getting the shots you want them to.  If the Ascensions of NXT get the call up before the Sami Zayns and Adrian Nevilles.  You know why?  Because the guys who don’t bump, and work slower, probably aren’t going to get hurt half as much as the guys who do diving tornado DDTs through the ropes on the outside.  And the guys WWE starts training from scratch have a lot more room on their “bump cards” than guys who spent 12 years on the indies before they’re signed.

I’m going to keep my fingers crossed.  I’m going to hope Barrett is a close call, and not a nine-month disappearance.

I’m going to hope Daniel Bryan comes back to opportunity and success.  I’m going to hope Dolph Ziggler is taken seriously beyond Money in the Bank.

But if you think any of that is a lock, well, take it a way, Triple H….

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