It'd be nice if they acknowledged the injury and said 'Orton hurt Batista badly enough last night that Batista will not be able to defend the title - and therefore we will be holding a tournament to decide the champion.' And that would lead into an NCAA style tournament heading into SummerSlam. We could have brackets, they could post the bracket on WWE.com and give people a week to fill them out. Person who picks the most matches right wins a trip to next year's Wrestlemania...

Can you say triple threat or 4 way for Raw with Orton & HHH involved. That way either Orton or HHH win the belt but neither Orton or HHH gets pinned. I would expect MVP to be in it and take the fall.

Batista=injuries=steroids

Batista is just too old to have that much mass on his frame. He is going to continue to get bicep and hamstring tears, until he pulls a Chris Masters and gets off the juice and gets way thinner.

Lately, all title feuds in WWE seem to require that the title changes hands, whether briefly or long-term. Perhaps the obsessive-compulsive writer(s) who dreamed up this rule decided to put the belt on Batista now, before he gets injured even worse.

It certainly does take away Orton's credibility to lose the belt to Batista, a run-of-the-mill face compared to say Triple H or John Cena, and would seem not to make sense given how WWE has built Orton up as their main heel.

Congrats, Kevin! Your column was on Google Sports today!

I have to believe that Trips will be involved in this, as you do. If Batista will be out three-six weeks (speculating here) I would think Trips would have to be involved in The Bash in some form.

I just hope and pray Cena isn't put into the mix. Orton has been doing such a very flawless job as being the top heel on RAW (or in WWE in my opinion!) he needs to keep the title for a long time. We all know that Cena would win the title back if pitted against Orton. The way Cena is handed matches, you'd think HE was Stephanie's husband. :)

I think on Raw tonight, Vickie will come out and say Batista cannot compete due to injury, therefore he must give up his title (imagine the heel heat she would gain)

Orton will come out and say he is the rightful champion, then MVP comes out and sais he wants a match for the title

They have a match and Orton looks like he will win but HHH will return and then interefere to help MVP win (like he did to help MVP break from his losing streak a few months back)

Therefore there will be a set up feud with HHH and Orton, DX vs Legacy soon? And raw will have some new fresh talent as WWE champion

Although I think there is a chance Dibiase will win in a fluke way and he will turn on Legacy much like Orton did to evolution.

Hopefuly the Batista injury will bring about some much needed changes and not the typical Cena or HHH win

I'll tell you the difference between Batista and Hardy, why one gets hurt alot despite not doing anything extraordinary and the other doesn't despite all his high flying stuff.

Steroids.

Think it's pretty obvious.

Will Carroll, the injury expert at Baseball Prospectus, has always mentioned that staying healthy is a skill. I think guys like Kennedy and Jeff Hardy show both ends of the spectrum. Or, Hulk Hogan, who for all of the gripes about him, was almost always healthy enough to come in and drop a leg on someone.

i'm only a casual WWE watcher these days, but the regular devaluing of their titles is baffling.

I can only assume they've given Batista a one-day run so they can, for the zillionth times, gift the belt to Triple H.

It'll also continue the trend of having Orton's title runs derailed by the constant need to keep Triple H on top.

Hey, Kevin,

The Intercontinental Championship used to be a great pit stop for upcoming superstars on their way to the top. However, what is its significance now? Jericho has been world champion a few times, why has he been relegated to the mid-card champion? Wasn't he world champ as late as last fall? Just seems like a demotion or something.

Thanks, Kevin, keep up the great work.

Jason

WWE's gimmick match.......Matt and his broken hand vs. Jeff and his broken finger........too bad the stretcher match gimmick has already been used on their feud.

That was the first thing I thought of when I saw that Jeff had hurt his shoulder - he has been amazingly injury free for his entire career.

I'm sure he probably has trouble getting out of bed every morning due to the wear & tear on his body every year, but he has never missed substantial ring time due to injury. That's incredible.

"...but Hardy is the exact opposite of Batista. Despite all the crazy bumps that Hardy has taken over the years, he has managed to avoid major injuries throughout his career."

It has nothing to do with wrestling style and everything to do with the fact that Hardy isn't on roids.

I think it is funny how people jump to the conclusion that every time Batista gets hurt everyone start with the steroids. Well if you look bodybuilders have the same injuries. I really don't think that iit is steroids. I think everyone needs to understand that injuries do happen and I don't think we should jump up and start with the steroid crap. It is just a soap opera. Just enjoy the show and stop jumping with the conclusions it is steroids. If that was the case everyone of the superstars would be hurt all the time. Batista is just an actor. I give the props to be able to put up with the negative talk that you all say. If you look at Batista from when he first came to now he has slimmed down some. I have read where he works out everyday. If u work out as much as he does you would be that big too. So stop with the negative stuff. He will be back. I also think that next week they will have him on and he will give the belt to triple H.
I also think it is getting really old with Randy Orton. I think they have gone on long enough. I have stopped watching it every week because it is the same old same old. Get a new plot and maybe people will start watching it agian.
Thanks,
Laura

With all due respect to those commenting , as a former competitive bodybuilder and powerlifter , I am always amazed at how many experts there are out there regarding steroid use . I 'll just leave it at that .

I wonder just how much of an effect the injury will have on Hardy's decision to sign another contract. I'm assuming that this will convince him even more to take a break.

Like Mick Foley said, if you don't have any muscles you can't get a muscle tear.

Obviously by now we have all seen RAW and yet again wrestling fans take a look at WWE Creative and go "What the heck???"

BTW Kudos to the first poster Sam...I would have much preferred the storyline going there instead of what happened.

How can we take Orton or Legacy seriously again after this?

Batista=injuries=steroids

There is no connection between Batista frequently getting injured and him being on steroids. I can totally understand why people would think that considering how massive he is but there is no actual proof to back up those claims. People have a tendacy of forgetting just how unforgiving sports-entertainment really is. The stuff these people put their bodies thru has to be wearing some of them down and so these injuries will continue to pile on until they can have some significant time off to allow their bodies to heal. Wrestling basically 365 days a year will start to tear these guys apart...no matter who it is, it will catch up to you eventually.

Although I think there is a chance Dibiase will win in a fluke way and he will turn on Legacy much like Orton did to evolution

Just an FYI, Orton didn't turn on Evolution, Evolution turned on him. Randy Orton won the World title from Chris Benoit on Aug. 15, 2004. The next night on RAW, when he was celebrating his title reign with Evolution, Batista had Orton up on his shoulders and that's when Triple H gave Orton the thumbs down and Batista fell back which dumped Orton and then Evolution proceeded to beat the snot out of RKO.

"Like Mick Foley said, if you don't have any muscles you can't get a muscle tear."
LOL!

Dave man , if he has get two other guys to help him fight you,he's a p**** when you get beter i think i have an idea what your going to do to him.I'm a 13. And i know right from wrong,
Cindy

Sorry, but all of these guys wrestle the same schedule and most if not all are more athletic and perform more complex moves than Dave Batista. While I understand that some guys bodies are more adept at dealing with the wear and tear, one cannot help but be suspicious when guys like Jeff Hardy, who are really putting their bodies on the line are hurt a fraction of the time Batista is.

In addition, I'd like to point out that Batista is not the 6 foot 6 he is billed as. I know that they always add size to guys in the numbers, but when you realize that he is really average height you start to see how much mass is on his 40 year old frame. There are genetic freaks (John Cena) and there are extremely muscular guys who push it and Batista's neck and arms (compared to his legs) look like something is going on.

And by the way, you don't need to have a background in weightlifting to spot a steroids abuser. I only needed to lift my laptop onto this table to see that Barry Bons head and feet grew 2 or more sizes in his late 30's. I don't even care if Batista is on steroids, I think he kinda sucks anyway, but to act as though anyone is out of line for questioning whether or not a guy with the look and history of Batista may have used is ridiculous.

Besides, the WWE, running an internal wellness program, is alot less likely to expose one of their top talents (who by all accounts is seemingly a great guy) than they are to drop, say, Chris Masters. The Trips connection probably doesn't hurt either.

*Wrestlers hampered by possible steroid related injuries late in their career, See also: Rey Mysterio

JGavin - I don't know if you were directing a portion of your comment to me regarding something I posted earlier or not .
I'm not questioning whether or not Batista is "chemically enhanced ". Nor do I want to go into the morality of it . All I'm saying is that from an environment that I've been around, I know that is is naive to blame injuries solely on steroid use .
Sorry if you took offense to my comment .

wow Jgarvin is right on look how lean Regal was before and after his suspension and look at him now and his days from WCW? anyway I wish WWE would follow in the footsteps of Paul E. where as RVD was his best performer he never put the World Title on him he put it on Tazz,Credible, Dreamer, etc HHH, Orton Edge should almost be above the title like Jericho, Rey and a few others and use the World title to legitimize the MVP's ,Matt's, Morrisons, etc thats how you get new more believable stars
thats how Orton got to the next level by defeating beniot. Anyway i think alot of these injuries are roid related i know people that have been working out for 20 years and still don't have bodies as ripped as Cena, Orton,batista HHH etc but have you noticed though over the last few years HHH has slimmed down

I knew HHH was gonna come back, but I expected it to be a Batista HHH storyline. I have a feeling Batista is gonna keep the belt. I think he should, He always seems to get screwed one way or another.

It's funny, I know it seems intuitive based on their wrestling styles that Jeff Hardy would be more likely to have major injuries - and in a way I totally agree.

But from the perspective of someone who studies body mechanics and injury prevention - Batista has a body that's much more susceptible to injury - severely lacking in flexibility.

The way Batista's body is built is such to show off the bulge of his muscles, but in order to have muscles show like that you have to shorten them - plus much of the "bulk" you see is really scar tissue because you aren't stretching and flushing the muscle tissue enough to let it clear out the broken muscle tissue. This is why ballet dancers, pound for pound, are many times stronger than body builders - because they have nearly as much functional muscle tissue and no scar tissue.

Anyway, with that much scar tissue, and with muscles that shortened, it doesn't take much to tear them - and with Batista's injuries mostly being torn muscles, it's pretty clear why he gets them. The way you can see it on him is when he moves, his muscles don't ripple or bounce, they just sort of sit stiffly on his body.

Jeff Hardy on the other hand has a fairly supple and flexible musculature. In terms of style it seems like a great deal of luck that Jeff Hardy has not gotten more banged up, but in general - the way his body is developed - he'd be much less prone to muscle tears and joint injuries.

It is curious though.