Report: Randy Orton is injured after all

After a week of rumors that suggested Randy Orton would be making his return to WWE television imminently, he worked a couple house shows before appearing in a dark segment this past week on Monday Night Raw to deliver a few RKO's to the likes of Seth Rollins, Jamie Noble, and Joey Mercury.

There were reports that he suffered an injury at one of the house shows, but those reports were later amended to say it appeared to be an angle. Now, the latest issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (subscription required but recommended) reveals that Orton is injured after all.

Orton has a deviated septum, which is why he only worked short matches in his return to the house shows this week, and didn't wrestle on the second night of the tour at the Nassau Coliseum, nor appeared on Raw. He's going to have surgery to repair it, but the recovery time after surgery is only for a few weeks.

That would certainly explain why he has yet to work television after wrapping up filming on his latest movie project for WWE Studios. After his surgery, the Observer notes that he's scheduled to work matches with Rollins in a return to the program they were working before he was written off television.