The WWE pulled off a surprising tag team title change on SmackDown Live on Tuesday night, while also announcing an Erick Rowan injury that will require surgery.
The Erick Rowan injury happened at SummerSlam 2018 two nights before during the Bludgen Brothers loss by disqualification over New Day in their tag team title match.
Per WWE rules, the Bludgen Brothers retained the SmackDown tag team titles since a team can only lose their titles by pinfall or submission.
Erick Rowan suffered his injury in the SummerSlam match — a torn biceps. The news broke rather quickly but the WWE mentioned nothing about it until after SmackDown Live on Tuesday night.
The New Day got another shot at the titles, this time in a match where anything goes and there were no disqualifications. The end came when Erick Rowan charged one member of New Day with his mallet but missed and crashed into the barrier, selling the arm injury.
After that, the New Day attacked Luke Harper 2-on-1 and put him through a ladder to win the match. After that, the WWE finally revealed the Erick Rowan injury — possibly to use the SmackDown Live match as a storyline explanation for the injury.
Rowan of The Bludgeon Brothers has suffered a torn right bicep, WWE.com has learned.
The former SmackDown Tag Team Champion is currently scheduled to undergo surgery to repair the injury this week.
Erick Rowan will head to Birmingham, Alabama this week to undergo surgery for his torn biceps. The usual recovery time for this sort of injury is four to six months.