Below are a couple of top AEW & WWE news stories of the day.
• ROH Women’s Champion Athena (fka Ember Moon in WWE) got injured during this week’s Ring of Honor tapings.
Athena reportedly hurt her left leg in her match against Viva Van. The injury occurred when Athena charged at Van, who ducked and pulled the middle rope down, causing Athena to tumble through the ropes and land on the floor.
Despite the injury and a noticeable limp, Athena returned to the ring and managed to deliver a forearm smash to Van to secure the victory.
Although Van initially kicked out, she remained down for a second pinfall attempt, indicating that Athena had communicated her injury to the referee.
Athena has now been the ROH Women’s Champion for 518 days. She stayed in character after the match, but did not put any weight on her left leg. She exited the ring by hopping, with assistance from the referee and another staff member.
• In the main event of last night’s SmackDown, Randy Orton defeated Carmelo Hayes to advance to the next round of the King of the Ring tournament.
Orton will face Tama Tonga in the Semi-Finals on next week’s episode of SmackDown, which will take place in Saudi Arabia.
After SmackDown went off the air, Carmelo said the following about his loss to The Viper:
“You want to talk about if I lost. You know what? The way I look at it, I didn’t lose. I just didn’t win. Look, Randy Orton, 14-time World Champ, all the accolades in the world, but I stood toe to toe with him. I almost beat Randy Orton, just like I almost beat Cody Rhodes.
You want to talk about facts, you want to talk about stats, this is my second main event here on SmackDown. So that’s a win in itself.
On top of that, my signing bonus hits tomorrow, so I’m already thinking about all the things that I’m gonna buy. Maybe I’m gonna buy a new chain, maybe I’m gonna buy a new car, maybe I’m gonna buy a new house. Maybe I’m gonna buy my girl some jewelry, some purses, all those type of things.
At the end of the day, the day’s gotta end.”
