Report: John Cena elbow surgery scheduled after SummerSlam

Remember the episode of Monday Night Raw a couple weeks ago when John Cena was in the middle of cutting a promo talking about the sacrifices he's made for the industry and he showed off his injured elbow, saying "it looks like a football"?

That injury, which has been downplayed by WWE simply for the fact that it has hardly been acknowledged outside of that mention from the man himself, is likely going to be one of the deciding factors in a title change at SummerSlam.

That's because, according to Dave Meltzer on the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Cena has already scheduled surgery for his elbow:

"The only thing that's probable is that Cena's not going to end the night as champion because he needs elbow surgery and it's actually scheduled. I don't know the day it's scheduled but it's scheduled imminently, as in, they're trying to keep the injury quiet because of 'SummerSlam', to not make the result predictable."

Cena is set to defend his WWE championship in the main event of SummerSlam, scheduled for this Sun., Aug. 18, 2013, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, against Daniel Bryan, who has been built up to such a degree that it makes absolute sense to put the belt on him on one of the biggest shows of the year and hope he can steer the ship while the captain is out for repairs.

Or, and this seems just as likely, have Randy Orton cash in his Money in the Bank contract to win the belt and let him have a run with the strap. He is, after all, one of the top stars with the company and is, believe it or not, a relatively fresh face in the Raw main event scene.

If the plan is to put the belt on Orton, perhaps WWE holds off on it at SummerSlam just to swerve the fans, instead doing it at Raw the very next night. Either way, it looks like a lock that Cena will be dropping the belt to one of the two before fading out of the picture for a while.

Thoughts?