WWE injuries: how can shrinking roster cope heading into WrestleMania 32?

COMMENT: Every superstar and Diva who walked out of WrestleMania 31 with championship gold around their waist is currently on the shelf

 

Ayub Nouinou
Wednesday 13 January 2016 19:38 GMT
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John Cena is a major doubt for the "Showpiece of the Immortals"
John Cena is a major doubt for the "Showpiece of the Immortals"

As WWE gets ready to embark on the Road to WrestleMania 32, the company has been rocked with the announcement that John Cena will be out of action indefinitely with a torn rotator cuff.

The 15-time World Champion informed the world that he would be undergoing shoulder surgery in Birmingham, Alabama via his Twitter account last week and soon after, WWE.com confirmed that the operation was successful.

A torn rotator cuff is a very serious injury that can take six-to-nine months to fully recuperate from, but just how much time will Cena actually miss? Bear in mind that this is a superstar who has a history of recovering from severe injuries faster than he can sprint down the ramp. For example, in October 2007, Cena tore the pectoral muscle completely off of his shoulder while performing a hip toss on Mr. Kennedy during a bout on Raw. The estimated recovery time was seven months to a year but the 38-year-old defied all the odds to return at the 2008 Royal Rumble event less than five months later.

Despite the possibility that Cena could make yet another premature recovery, it would still be too soon for him to physically compete or be involved in any storyline moving towards WrestleMania in Dallas on 3 April. This time around, considering his age and the seriousness of his injury, the boss, Vince McMahon, should completely rule out another lighting quick return for his number one asset to reduce the risk of further jeopardising his health. McMahon should instead take a leaf from Arsene Wenger’s book. The Arsenal boss is cautious about bringing Alexis Sanchez – who has suffered from a muscular injury - back too soon. The Chilean is considered to be a workhorse (much like Cena) and is widely known for his eagerness to play even when he is injured, but Wenger has done well to protect him and McMahon should do the same before clearing his superstars to prevent further setbacks.

“The Cenation leader” is just the latest name added to an alarmingly long list of wrestlers in the WWE treatment room. Injuries to Daniel Bryan, Randy Orton and Seth Rollins had already placed immense strain on the roster and left the company without three of their biggest full-time performers. The first inductee in WWE Hall of Fame's Class of 2016 Sting, Tyson Kidd, Sin Cara, Darren Young, Nikki Bella, Sasha Banks, Paige, King Barrett, Cesaro and Rusev – who suffered a knee injury at a live event this past Saturday in Louisiana – are all also on the mend.

Every superstar and Diva who walked out of WrestleMania 31 with championship gold around their waist (Rollins, Cena, Bryan, Cesaro, Kidd and Nikki Bella) is currently on the shelf. Think Jurgen Klopp has it bad? Think again.

WrestleMania 32 plans are in turmoil. WWE is left to scramble.

For the company and a large portion of its fans, losing the industry’s biggest star for the biggest show of the year is just another brutal kick in the teeth. Another devastating blow to a roster that has been blighted by long-term injuries to several of its marquee competitors.

The timing for these injuries is awful and bad luck is partly to blame. But in reality, they’re unsurprising considering the physical stress that the company’s 300 plus day schedule puts on its superstars.

WWE chiefs acknowledged the punishing nature of their schedule in a detailed financial report published in 2014. It stated, "We hold numerous live events each year. The physical nature of our events exposes our performers to the risk of serious injury or death."

"Numerous" is a massive understatement to say the least considering the amount of time that they are on the road and the number of matches they wrestle in that period.

This is without a doubt the most disastrous injury crisis in WWE history and is exposing just how little depth the current roster has and questions have naturally arisen about which direction the WWE will take moving forward.

Brock Lesnar has been booked for more live events and television tapings in the upcoming months, which demonstrates that WWE is trying to compensate for all the injuries. “The Beast Incarnate” made his return to Raw this past week and single-handedly annihilated half the roster.

WWE is hoping to set an all-time WrestleMania attendance record by drawing a sell-out crowd of 105,000 fans at the AT&T Stadium. Since last year’s event only had an attendance of around 77,000, WrestleMania 32 will have to be the has to be the biggest event in the entire history of the business if it’s to ever reach those figures.

Building the event without Cena - the face of the company - will definitely diminish the spotlight that the pay-per-view would have gained if his planned “dream” bout with The Undertaker was set in stone, making the company’s target for a record-setting WrestleMania an even tougher task.

The fact that WWE officials have placed vast amounts of pressure on themselves to deliver extremely ambitious goals during a difficult period for the business is absurd. TV ratings, attendances and the popularity of the product in general has plummeted since the overwhelming success of the Attitude Era in the late nineties.

The company needs to get its priorities straight in desperate times such as these. WWE should primarily concentrate on evaluating the potential, marketability and quality of their biggest pay-per-view.

So what can WWE do to raise the bar at WrestleMania? Despite the list of casualties, McMahon still has immense star power in his arsenal with Triple H, The Undertaker and Brock Lesnar all expected to feature at “The Showcase of the Immortals”. The Rock will also make his long-awaited return at the event to “electrify” the WWE Universe. “Y2J” Chris Jericho could also compete in Dallas. He is very entertaining on the microphone and can still wrestle a world-class match, so why not? These five mega stars are more than capable of putting bums on seats and boosting WWE Network subscriptions if booked correctly.

Furthermore, it’s time for the superstars on the main roster to step up and be counted for as there might not be a better opportunity to make an impact than during this current injury crisis. Dean Ambrose and Kevin Owens are two names that instantly come to mind and their current feud is heating up. The “The Lunatic Fringe” Ambrose is over with the fans and his performances as the current Intercontinental Champion will be a key factor in determining whether he is involved in a high-profile match at WrestleMania. On the other hand, creative must stop holding Owens back from reaching his full potential. With the company’s number one heel, Seth Rollins, on the shelf Owens needs to solidify himself as a top villain, but he cannot do that if he is consistently relegated to the mid-card.

The League of Nations stable are struggling to get over with the fans, but WWE officials seem to be quite high on Sheamus which could see him compete in a significant match at WrestleMania.

Moving on, WWE are set to sign four major New Japan Pro Wrestling stars – Bullet Club members Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows as well as Shinsuke Nakamura and AJ Styles. WWE.com seemingly confirmed the reports when they published the story with the headline “Nakamura, Bullet Club to WWE?” The four had given their notices to NJPW management following the Wrestle Kingdom 10 event and Nakamura has since been stripped of the company’s Intercontinental Title. It is likely that we will see one or two of them in the Royal Rumble match this month but what will they be able to offer the WWE?

It’s no coincidence that WWE set out to sign four of NJPW’s top stars as soon as the WWE Network launched in Japan last week. They are hugely popular in the country and will help boost subscriptions in the Land of the Rising Sun. Apart from profiting from the Japanese fan base, going to NXT must be out of the question with the current injury crisis. They must debut on the main roster to add some much needed depth. It will also make sense for Finn Balor make the jump to the main roster at some point in the near future to be involved with them in some shape or form.

Reports that WWE are raiding the NJPW talents have ignited a flame inside Daniel Bryan. Bryan has been cleared by his own personal doctors for a return, but WWE medics are refusing to give him the green light to wrestle. The bearded superstar has been out of action for around 9 months as a result of constant concussion symptoms and is now urging WWE to give him the go-ahead on social media. He tweeted last week: “Can @WWE clear me already?!!!”

One of the few positives to come out of the last few months was the company’s strong 2015 Q3 financial results which saw subscribers to the WWE Network increase by 62 per cent from the third-quarter in 2014. The challenge facing WWE officials will be how to carry this financial success into their annual extravaganza, but with this latest twist in what has become a damaging injury crisis, The Road to WrestleMania has taken a diabolical turn. WWE officials must search for a solution to this problem. Company doctors are far too busy and the roster is shrinking. Fast.

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