According to F4WOnline and PWInsider, Rey Mysterio’s injury on Friday night’s WWE SmackDown was indeed legitimate.
On Friday night there was much speculation across social media if this was a work, or if Mysterio suffered a real injury.
Per Fightful Select, WWE had Santos Escobar originally set to have a clean over Mysterio in the United States Championship Invitational Finals on the show. However, WWE had to call an audible to end the match and declare Escobar the winner. It was also said that a follow-up backstage segment was scrapped due to Mysterio’s injury.
The injury happened when Escobar hit a suicide dive on Mysterio onto the floor. Mysterio’s head bounced hard off the floor. Referee Jessika Carr and WWE medical personnel tended to Mysterio, who was down on the apron. It was then announced that Mysterio was unable to continue in the match and thus the audible was called and referee Jessika Carr declared Escobar as the winner. After the match, Mysterio was back up on his feet. He and Escobar then embraced in the ring.
With the win Friday night, Escobar will now go on to challenge Austin Theory for the United States Championship on the Friday, August 11 episode of WWE SmackDown. The show will take place from the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Back on July 15, AEW held an episode of Collision at the same venue, which featured the finals of the Men’s Owen Hart Foundational Tournament. Ricky Starks won the match by defeating CM Punk. The referee didn’t see Starks using the middle ropes for leverage in order to get the pinfall on Punk.