WWE News: Why WWE Has Not Addressed The Reported Finn Balor Concussion From WWE RAW Match
WWE Superstar Finn Balor made his official return to the ring this past Monday on WWE RAW when he faced off with Jinder Mahal, but it seemed that Balor took a huge shot to the head in the match and fans are now worried. Balor has been back in the ring already, as he took part in some WWE Live Events before WrestleMania 33. He had been cleared for about a month already, but “the official match” on WWE RAW was his first since WWE SummerSlam.
In this match he faced off with Jinder Mahal, who we found out later would move to WWE SmackDown Live from the WWE RAW brand. In his match with Jinder, Finn Balor took a major shot to the head when Mahal hit an elbow shot flush, right across Balor’s head. Balor looked to be legitimately knocked out from the blow. So much so, he hit his face on the mat but woke up in enough time to get finished with the match shortly after.
When he won, you could see visible ring burn on Balor’s face as his hand was being raised for the win. It was clearly the fault of Jinder for not taking anything off of his blow to Balor. An elbow shot can go down in the WWE often, but normally these types of shots are hit with a lot less force. The WWE star will hit the person for real, but without a huge elbow shot with major force. Jinder missed training day for that, apparently.
It was then reported on Tuesday afternoon from PWInsider that Finn Balor had sustained a concussion from the blow by Jinder. WWE has yet to address the issue on their website or through any social media platform. Finn Balor has not addressed the ordeal either. This made many people wonder: why is WWE trying to hide an injury from the fans? Is the report false and there is no injury at all?
It’s really all regarding what happened last year with Randy Orton. He just returned after nearly a year away from the WWE over a shoulder injury. In one of his first matches back, he fought Brock Lesnar in the main event of WWE SummerSlam. In this match, we saw Brock go way too far and not only bust open Orton but continuously hit his head. It would cause a concussion for Orton in what many thought was the most obvious diagnosis of all time.
WWE really did not even acknowledge the concussion, however, despite the fact that it was obvious and various websites had reported on it. In fact, WWE tried to cover up the concussion at that time. They did not allow Orton to really work any matches, and when he did end up doing them it was for a short time. WWE even had to cancel a match with him and Bray Wyatt at WWE Backlash last year due to the concussion and had Bray “attack” Orton before the match, causing him to miss it.
Orton would return, and it seemed WWE felt that they had to repay him as he would end up winning the Royal Rumble and WWE Championship at WrestleMania 33. If you notice, they have not acknowledged most head injuries that WWE Superstars have sustained for quite a while. The reason has to do with a few things. First, they do not know the extent of how bad someone is hurt with their concussion. It could be mild for Balor, and they feel he may only miss a few weeks.
Finn Balor can come out and do promos for a few weeks too, and with his next opponent apparently set to be Bray Wyatt…he’s in luck. Wyatt will take on Randy Orton for the WWE Championship at WWE Payback in three weeks. Afterward, he can focus on his rivalry with Finn Balor. Balor does not really have to work a match for nearly a month and could still work the match with Wyatt. So WWE does not need to acknowledge anything yet as Balor may not be out long.
Plus with him set to probably do promos on television, he won’t really be in any sort of problem state. On top of this issue, WWE also is still involved in yet another “concussion lawsuit” with former WWE talent. Giving them any sort of public acknowledgment that concussions are still happening a lot in WWE would only help their lawsuit. That said, WWE will probably avoid ever reporting head injuries until they are done with these kinds of lawsuits coming for them.
[Featured Image by WWE]