WWE reports Randy Orton injury at SmackDown taping in Providence

WWE held its SmackDown taping in Providence, Rhode Island, tonight (July 16, 2013) and -- SPOILER ALERT -- the show featured a match between Randy Orton and Alberto Del Rio in the main event of the evening.

During that match, Orton apparently suffered an injury, as reported by WWE.com:

At Tuesday night's SmackDown television taping, Mr. Money in the Bank Randy Orton was injured during his match against World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio.

According to WWE medical personnel, the nine-time World Champion suffered a cervical strain and cervical neuropraxia.

A cervical strain is essentially the medical term for whiplash, something I personally have suffered the effects of and can attest to how it isn't really all that serious. I cannot say the same for cervical neuropraxia and a quick bit of research shows that it's an injury that occurs quite often in high impact sports, or in this case sports entertainment. The good news is that recovery time is generally short and, assuming it's a legitimate injury, Orton may not be forced to miss much time at all.

But this is pro wrestling and the available spoilers as of this writing indicate Orton defeated Del Rio in their match, so this could just be a work and the injury may not even really exist.

So, as usual, stay tuned.