Three matches had significant championship ramifications during Tuesday's edition of SmackDown Live, but one of the results was put in doubt with news that Zack Ryder had injured his left knee during a battle royal.
Bittersweet night. Won a battle royal on #SDLive for the #HypeBros to become No. 1 contenders...Injured my knee in the process. MRI tomorrow
- Zack Ryder (@ZackRyder) December 14, 2016
Ryder, who was the last man standing in the battle royal to determine the new No. 1 contenders for the SmackDown tag team championships, seemingly earned himself and Mojo Rawley the next shot at The Wyatt Family after last eliminating The Ascension's Konnor. But as Rawley ran out to the ring to celebrate with his tag team partner, Ryder was visibly hobbled -- and a release from the WWE later in the evening confirmed that Ryder had indeed suffered an injury to his knee.
"We think he injured his kneecap, or his patella. We think it popped out and then popped back in, so we're just going to do an MRI to make sure that there is not cartilage damage or some tendon tearing, stuff like that," according to WWE's Dr. Chris Robinson. "Hopefully there's not and it'll be a shorter rehab period. If there is, there's a different road we might have to go down that may take longer to get him to recover."
Ryder is a one-time WWE tag team champion, a one-time Intercontinental champion and a one-time United States champion.