More details have surfaced regarding Chelsea Green’s injury on WWE SmackDown, as well as potential fallout from the incident.
Green suffered a broken orbital bone while teaming with Tiffany Stratton against Lainey Reid and Fallon Henley on the August 7 episode of WWE SmackDown. Green later confirmed the injury herself on social media.
Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio at F4WOnline.com, Bryan Alvarez said the injury occurred during Reid and Henley’s Rolling Encore finishing move, with Reid landing on Green’s head during the sequence.
“There was a tag match they did on the show, and it was Fatal Influence versus Chelsea and Tiffany,” Alvarez said. “They did the match and everything was going along as it should, and then at the very end Fatal Influence hit Chelsea with their finish. It looked on TV like everything was fine, but in fact everything was not fine. Lainey fell on Chelsea’s head in doing the move, and Chelsea broke her orbital bone.”
Green’s timetable for a return remains unclear, leaving questions about what WWE will do with the interim championship she won at SummerSlam.
“And so now the interim champion has a broken orbital bone,” Alvarez continued. “She’s acknowledged it. We don’t know how long she’s going to be out. Probably we’ll know in a couple of days. Maybe a deal where she can wear that thing on her face. Maybe she’ll have to also vacate. I don’t know what’s going on, but she is hurt.”
Alvarez also noted that he has heard criticism within wrestling regarding Reid and Henley’s Rolling Encore, raising the possibility that Fatal Influence could move away from the finishing move following Green’s injury.
“And I have heard people saying within wrestling that this is not a good finish anyway,” he said. “So we’ll see if they end up getting a new finish. But it was one of those finishes where it looked like nothing went wrong, but somebody got badly injured.”
