Bandido has suffered another injury setback.
The popular luchador and former ROH World Champion hasn’t wrestled since breaking his wrist in a match against Konosuke Takeshita on the June 14, 2023, AEW Rampage taping. Following surgery to treat the injury, his wrist didn’t heal well and required a second surgery and additional missed time.
Vignettes promoting Bandido’s long-awaited return began earlier this month on AEW programming. At ROH Final Battle on Friday, he came to Matt Cardona’s rescue as he was attacked 3-on-1 by The Learning Tree. Bandido hit a missile dropkick on Chris Jericho but hit his head as he landed. He appeared out of it after, and the segment eventually ended as The Learning Tree left the ring area.
Dave Meltzer reported on Sunday that Bandido suffered a concussion. Bandido confirmed the news today in an Instagram post.
Bandido wrote (translation via Google):
“What a weekend! All I can do is thank God for allowing me to wake up another day after all that has been through!. The blow was in a delicate area of my head, now just to wait till there is no brain inflammation. Thank you to all my people who have been messaging me asking about my current status!!. It’s been hard to cope with these days with myself, too much frustration runs over my head. The hardest battle of my life is coming, with myself!! All I can say is that I will try to return a thousand and one times to the squad!! so I achieve it at some point or stay trying…!”
The injury may force a change of plans for Ring of Honor booking. It appeared as though Jericho and Bandido would be moving into a world title program, but Bandido’s concussion may prevent that.
Tony Khan is reportedly looking to get Ring of Honor a television deal. At the Final Battle post-event media scrum, he noted that he’s had “great conversations” regarding a potential deal but did not provide further details.