WWE Rumors on Becky Lynch’s Injury, Vince McMahon-Pat McAfee; Orton Talks Retirement

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Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from the WWE Universe.

Lynch Expected Back Soon from Injury

Raw women’s champion Becky Lynch did not appear on Monday’s episode of Raw, and it was reportedly because she was dealing with an injury.

According to PWInsider.com’s Mike Johnson, Lynch is “legitimately hurt,” but she is expected to return in about two weeks.

The exact nature of Lynch’s injury is unclear, but Big Time Becks posted a photo of herself in a hospital bed Monday on Instagram and wrote that Bianca Belair fractured her voice box during a Triple Threat match that also included Rhea Ripley at a WWE live event in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on Sunday.

Later, a hoarse Lynch tweeted video of herself saying she “busted out of hospital” and made it backstage for Monday’s Raw in Cleveland:

According to Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio (h/t WrestlingInc’s Matthew Wilkinson), WWE originally had McAfee vs. WWE chairman Vince McMahon on the books for WrestleMania.

Last week, McMahon appeared on the Pat McAfee Show and had a long and insightful chat with the former Indianapolis Colts punter. Near the end of their conversation, McMahon offered McAfee a match on the WrestleMania card.

McMahon did not reveal McAfee’s opponent at first, but on Friday’s episode of SmackDown, Theory revealed himself to be McAfee’s opponent and slapped the commentator upside the head.

Theory has been McMahon’s protege over the past couple of months, so it makes sense from a storyline perspective that McMahon would put him in a high-profile match.

Per Meltzer, a McAfee vs. McMahon match would have seen Theory take the bulk of the bumps, although McMahon’s name would have been the one on the marquee.

Instead, WWE decided to go with McAfee vs. Theory, and there hasn’t been any indication as of yet that McMahon will be involved.

Meltzer suggested it is still possible, though, and McMahon could get inserted into the storyline over the next few weeks during the build to WrestleMania.

Orton on When He Plans to Retire

Randy Orton has no immediate plans to retire despite the fact that he is two decades into his WWE career.

During a discussion with Adam Glyn of Adam’s Apple on YouTube, The Viper offered some insight into when he thinks he will hang up his boots:

“I just turned 40 a year ago,” Orton said (around the 1:35 mark). “I got another decade in me, you know. We’ll see.”

Time tends to harden veterans in the pro wrestling business or any industry for that matter, but Orton truly seems to be enjoying himself as much as ever.

Orton is one half of the RK-Bro tag team with Riddle, and they are consistently among the most entertaining parts of WWE programming on a weekly basis.

On Monday’s episode of Raw, RK-Bro defeated Alpha Academy and the team of Seth Rollins and Kevin Owens in a Triple Threat tag team match to become Raw tag team champions for the second time.

As a result, Orton and Riddle will likely defend the titles at WrestleMania 38, perhaps against Alpha Academy and The Street Profits.

Orton is used to having huge singles matches at WrestleMania against the likes of The Undertaker, Triple H and AJ Styles, but being in a tag team this time of year is fairly new territory.

It has kept his character fresh, however, and taken some of the in-ring pressure off him too since Riddle can do the heavy lifting at times.

Orton is as popular as ever and still performing at a high level at the age of 41, which suggests there is no reason for him to step away from wrestling any time soon.

As a 14-time world champion, Orton is just two reigns behind John Cena and Ric Flair for the all-time record, and if Orton does indeed wrestle for another decade, he has a strong chance to become the most-decorated Superstar in WWE history.

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