SmackDown spoilers - Randy Orton to be written out of WWE storylines after all?

A few weeks ago it looked like Randy Orton would be working all the WWE SmackDown television tapings during the month of October, despite spending most of his time that month in Vancouver to film the latest WWE film "12 Rounds: Reloaded", the second installment in the "12 Rounds" franchise.

Now, according to Dave Meltzer presumably, in a members only post on his f4wonline.com website, that seems to be in question, since WWE taped a backstage injury angle after the SmackDown tapings on Sept. 25th had ended, where Alberto Del Rio attacked Orton, to air on next week's episode of WWE SmackDown on Thursday Oct. 4th.

As Meltzer notes, Orton is still being advertised for the Oct. 9th SmackDown tapings in San Jose, CA, so he may just be missing the taping next week and the angle was shot so he still could have a presence on the show.

However, it looks like WWE may be hedging their bets, as the dark match for the San Jose event has been changed from a Triple Threat match of Sheamus vs. Del Rio vs. Orton to a straight singles match between Sheamus and Del Rio. WWE could decide to hold Orton off TV for longer, if the production schedule for the movie requires it. His wrestling schedule in October has been changed several times already, so it's not like they have shown an ability to stick to plans.

Whatever happens, I would still expect Orton to face Del Rio at the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view (PPV) on Oct. 28th in Atlanta, GA. With John Cena not being guaranteed to be healthy enough to return to wrestle on the PPV, they can't afford to have their second most popular babyface miss the show too. Filming for the movie should be wrapped up by then, anyway.

Are you looking forward to that match, Cagesiders? Or are you more interested in seeing him in a bad action movie?