Orton injured, out of Elimination Chamber? (UPDATED)

Warning: Contains SmackDown spoiler

Rumors have surged on Tuesday night, prior to SmackDown tapings, that Randy Orton is injured and off of the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view. The leading reported cause is from a concussion suffered on Monday's edition RAW. Orton had a match with Big Show and was assaulted by Daniel Bryan in the post-match. Bryan hit Orton over the head with the World Heavyweight Championship. Whether the rumored concussion was caused by that is purely speculation.

The other five competitors in the SmackDown Elimination Chamber match are World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan, Big Show, Wade Barrett, Cody Rhodes, and The Great Khali.

One report has Mark Henry replacing Orton in the match. Henry was written off of television and removed from the Chamber match due to being "indefinitely suspended." The angle was a way to give him time off while he dealt with nagging injuries.

Other candidates to replace Orton could be Ted DiBiase and Justin Gabriel.

Christian may also be a candidate, but he's likely a long-shot. SmackDown is filming in Fresno, California tonight. It would've been a tough trip for Christian, who currently resides in Florida, to make on such short notice. Then again, the same could be said of Henry who is a native of Texas.

Updated 11:35 EST

This story has more or less been confirmed. WWE's own "@WWEUniverse" Twitter page has put out Tweets on the developments. There is also a story on WWE.com "confirming" that Orton has a concussion and is out of the Elimination Chamber match. On Twitter, WWE itself has reported that Mark Henry is currently at SmackDown, meaning he's all but guaranteed to be the replacement.

I say this story is "more or less" confirmed due to the fact that WWE is actually reporting it. Every word could be true. However, this also opens up the door to Orton's injury being kayfabe. This could be an angle where Orton still enters the match this Sunday. What better way to get back at the World Heavyweight Champion for "injuring" him than by taking away his title?

Then again, perhaps I am too paranoid...


Updated 1:05 EST


Welp. Disregard all of the stuff in the second update. Your new entrant is Santino Marella.

You read that correctly. Santino Marella. No trolling. It's Santino...

For real.