WWE: Brock Lesnar Vs. Roman Reigns At WrestleMania 31 Affected By Surgery?

The WWE Universe was shocked by the news that otherwise seemingly healthy Roman Reigns was rushed into emergency surgery. Fortunately, it seems like the life-threatening condition was caught in time, but could Reigns’ health affect the WWE’s plans for Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 31?

In a related report by The Inquisitr, advertisements don’t seem to indicate that Brock Lesnar will be on Monday Night RAW the day after Night Of Champions 2014.

To put Roman Reigns’ surgery in perspective, a neck injury caused Santino Marella to decide he would retire. But recently, Santino had surgery and now he’s even hopeful of taking Brock Lesnar’s belt and winning the WWE Championship.

“I want to come back because of some unfinished business. I believe being the Milan Miracle I have one miracle left. There’s one belt that I haven’t captured—the WWE Championship—and it’s going to require that miracle to do it.”

But even if Santino can pass the WWE physicals, doctors are telling him it will be six months minimum at least before he can wrestle, which probably would mean that any WrestleMania 31 role would be limited since WWE creative wouldn’t have enough time to build him up in a story line.

The same might hold true for Roman Reigns. Right now everyone is expecting Brock Lesnar to beat John Cena once again at Night Of Champions 2014. The expected storyline is that the Samoan Superman will be hyped in the lead up to WrestleMania 31, where he would then claim his WWE Championship belt. But Reigns’ sudden illness may be the proverbial monkey wrench in the WWE machine.

WWE physician Dr. Chris Amann gave the WWE Universe the latest health update on Reigns and exactly what is wrong with him.

“I was in contact with both Roman and the surgeon who performed the operation in Nashville today. Roman had developed acute abdominal pain in his hotel room last night after his match,” Dr. Amann said. “This wasn’t related to a specific injury that occurred in the ring. Roman has had a pre-existing hernia for some time, which unfortunately had become acutely painful, which led to him going to the emergency room in Nashville. He was found to have a large hernia that was unable to be reduced, which means pushed back into the abdominal cavity. As a result, it was necessary to perform an emergent operation to open up the hernia sac and try and push it back into the abdominal cavity.

“At the time of the surgery, surgeons found a loop of small intestine was caught in the hernia sac, which would account for the pain and discomfort that Roman was having earlier in the evening. The surgeons released the hernia sac so the intestine could be pushed back into the abdominal cavity. Once they were satisfied blood supply had returned to the intestine after releasing the hernia, they went ahead and completed the procedure. A mesh was placed over where the hernia had occurred to prevent future occurrences.”

The good doctor also explained that Reigns is currently recovering and, assuming intestinal function returns to normal, is expected to be released from the hospital tomorrow. Amann also said, “[T]he recovery time for something like this in terms of returning to physical activity is between four and six weeks. This was a pretty significant hernia, so it will probably be closer to six weeks.” Of course, “physical activity” may or not mean “capable of WWE wrestling.”

The good news is that Reigns did not suffer a sports hernia, which means his health problem may have not been caused by his activities in the ring. The bad news is that he suffered from an inguinal hernia, which can lead to life-threatening complications if not caught in time.

The question remains on how long Reigns will be out, and whether or not this will cause Vince McMahon and Triple H to axe their plans. Even before the news of the surgery broke, The Inquisitr was reporting that the WWE push for Reigns’ ascension may be in jeopardy, and others claimed he really did not deserve a shot at Brock Lesnar. It was also rumored that McMahon actually wanted The Rock Vs. Brock Lesnar for WrestleMania 31, but Triple H convince Vince to go with pushing Reigns to stardom instead of rehashing Rock Vs. Brock. Of course, there’s even talk of Dwayne Johnson wanting to take on his cousin some time in the future, but that’d be more likely for a future WrestleMania.

If the WWE changes its mind on pushing Roman Reigns, who do you think is the best option for challenging Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship belt? Well, assuming John Cena does lose tomorrow, that is…