When Santos Escobar won the United States Championship Invitational Finals against Rey Mysterio Friday night on SmackDown, many observers assumed the finish to the match was part of the narrative. After all, the two men are teammates in the LWO, and the announcers heavily pushed the idea that the matchup, which would see the winner receive a shot at the United States Championship held by Austin Theory, was a battle between mentor ad student.
So when the match returned from a commercial break to find Mysterio being checked on by a ringside physician, who then informed the referee that Rey could not continue, the feeling was that WWE wrote that up to prevent internal dissent within the LWO while allowing Escobar to advance to his title match.
Unfortunately, it turns out that wasn’t the case, and Mysterio really did suffer an injury during the match. Both Fightful Select (subscription required) and Wade Keller of PWTorch report that WWE had to change the finish to the match on the fly when Rey was hurt, with Keller adding that the issue was a suspected concussion.
Mysterio appeared to take an especially hard landing on the floor when Escobar hit him with a tope suicida, which was replayed on the SmackDown broadcast after it returned from a commercial break.
Both outlets noted that Escobar was scheduled to win the match anyway, so the sudden audible didn’t change anything WWE had planed regarding the U.S. title. Wrestling Junkie wishes a speedy recovery to Mysterio, with the hopes that he can be back in the ring as soon as he’s back in good health.