WWE: Ilja Dragunov Torn ACL Injury & Potential Return Plans Update, Backstage Update on Joe Hendry’s Surprise Appearance at WrestleMania 41 Night 2 Show, More News

Ilja Dragunov Torn ACL Injury Update – Dragunov’s Return Potentially Could Take Longer Than Expected

As noted before, Ilja Dragunov has been out of action for WWE since this past September due to a torn ACL injury.

Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp reported in a recent Q&A article that his sources stated that while Dragunov was initially expected to be out for 6 to 9 months, the current expectation is now closer to a year for him. Sapp reported that Dragunov has been rehabbing his injury but he is still not expected to make an in-ring return until this September or October.

Sapp reported that ACL injuries like the one Dragunov had suffered typically take around a year to safely come back from.

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Backstage Update on Joe Hendry’s Surprise Appearance at WrestleMania 41 Night 2 Show

As noted before, this past Sunday’s WWE WrestleMania 41 Night 2 event in Las Vegas, Nevada featured current TNA World Champion Joe Hendry making a surprise appearance as the mystery opponent for Randy Orton’s Open Challenge match.

Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that WWE officials had the “wheels in motion” for Hendry’s availability to be Orton’s mystery opponent around the time that Kevin Owens had publicly announced that he would be missing the show due to his neck injury.

It was reported that many within TNA found out that Hendry’s scheduled appearance was confirmed this past Saturday and WWE officials kept it quiet including not listing him on their internal run sheets for the show.

In regards to the reaction within TNA over how Hendry’s match played out, talent and staff spoken to stated that they felt it was good exposure for TNA and did not take as much of an issue with its very short length and other issues as many fans did online.

In regards to Hendry’s current contract with TNA, it was reported that his contract is currently set to expire sometime within the next 12 months. Hendry reportedly has an agent and WWE officials have maintained potential interest in signing him.

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WWE News & Notes

As noted before, John Cena is currently holding g a retirement tour for his in-ring wrestling career that concludes by the end of this year. Monday’s WWE RAW After Mania show in Las Vegas, Nevada featured Cena providing an update announcing that he only has 27 appearances left in WWE before he retires from his wrestling career.

Monday’s WWE RAW After Mania show in Las Vegas also featured SmackDown brand ring announcer Mark Nash filling in for Alicia Taylor. The reason for Taylor’s abscense was due her announcing on Twitter prior to the start of the show that she was taking the night off to rest her voice after working both nights of this past weekend’s WrestleMania 41 event.

Boston Connor recently announced on Twitter that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson will be making an appearance on Tuesday’s episode of The Pat McAfee Show.

Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp reported in a recent Q&A article that his sources stated that WWE officials are currently considering making changes to the runtime length for their WWE Hall of Fame ceremony events starting next year. It was reported that the combination of the very late time slot and long length of this year’s ceremony was something one source stated that WWE doing it again for next year’s ceremony is “highly unlikely, and if it does, it probably won’t be in that time slot.”

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that RAW brand backstage interviewer Cathy Kelly has been training of late at WWE’s Performance Center. Johnson reported that Kelly has been involved in promo class and in-ring training for some time now. Johnson reported that the current idea within WWE is to potentially use Kelly in a manager type role should they go in that direction for potential future creative plans for her.

As noted before, WWE Hall of Famer Stone Cold Steve Austin was involved in an incident at this past Sunday’s WrestleMania 41 Night 2 event in Las Vegas. This incident revolved around Austin crashing his ATV into a barricade at ringside causing a fan to fall backwards and getting potentially hurt in the process. Following the show, another fan was hurt following a separate incident involving a golf cart being driven that had Dominik Mysterio in the backseat that hit a fan on its way out of the arena.

This past Sunday’s WrestleMania 41 Night 2 event in Las Vegas also featured Becky Lynch making her surprise return to WWE. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that the reason why Lynch’s return took a very long time was due to her and WWE officials waiting for the right creative plans for it.

Busted Open Radio recently announced that Natalya has joined as the newest co-host for the show.

WWE recently released one new video to their WCW Vault channel. This new video was the full March 18, 1996 episode of WWE NXT.

WWE also recently released one new video to their WWE Vault channel on YouTube. This new video was a WWE Championship Fatal Four-way match of Edge vs. Randy Orton vs. Shawn Michaels vs. John Cena (c) from WWE Backlash 2007.

WWE also recently released one new video to their NXT Vault channel on YouTube. This new video was the full October 23, 2014 episode of WWE NXT.