Zack Ryder injures his knee on ‘SmackDown Live.’ (WWE.com)
Zack Ryder suffered a legitimate knee injury during last week’s SmackDown Live, and we now know what his recovery time will be.
Unfortunately, Ryder’s knee injury was serious enough that he will be gone for somewhere between four to nine months. Ryder broke the bad news to his fans on Twitter this weekend, although he said that he was given two different estimates.
I was told 4-6 months. I was also told 6-9 months. Time will tell. t.co/ziy4t8DPte
This is obviously terrible for Ryder, especially because it means that he will likely miss WrestleMania 33 in April. He will also miss Royal Rumble, Elimination Chamber, and Fastlane, which occur in January, February, and March respectively.
This news comes after Ryder received knee surgery in Birmingham, Alabama in the aftermath of Tuesday night’s SmackDown Live.
During a Tag Team Championship match on December 13th, The Hype Bros were able to secure a victory and earn themselves a shot at the title that is currently being defended by Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt. But Ryder injured his knee during the finisher, and he was clearly in a lot of pain as the match came to a close, not able to celebrate with his teammate, Mojo Rawley, and needing to be helped backstage.
Get HYPED because the #HypeBros @MojoRawleyWWE and @ZackRyder are the NEW No. 1 Contenders for the #SDLive Tag Team Championships!
The WWE later announced the injury on its website, saying that Ryder would soon undergo an MRI.
“We think he injured his kneecap or his patella. We think it popped out and then popped back in, so we’re just going to do an MRI to make sure that there is not cartilage damage or some tendon tearing, stuff like that,” the WWE’s doctor said in the company’s news update. “Hopefully there’s not and it’ll be a shorter rehab period. If there is, there’s a different road we might have to go down that may take longer to get him to recover.”
It seems that the WWE was immediately aware that Ryder’s injury might be quite serious, as on Talking Smack on Tuesday, they began to plant the seeds for Ryder to be replaced. During this SmackDown aftershow, The Usos showed up and told Daniel Bryan that they should be the ones to replace The Hype Bros as number one contenders now that Ryder can’t perform anymore. Daniel Bryan stated that no decision had been made since they did not know the status of Ryder’s injury yet.
Earlier this year, Zack Ryder won the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania 32, only to immediately lose the title to The Miz on Monday Night Raw the following night.