AEW used Kyle O'Reilly in several key spots in the build towards the Forbidden Door pay-per-view, but an injury derailed that momentum and he recently gave an update on his condition. An injury to CM Punk necessitated a tournament for the interim AEW World Championship, and O'Reilly had a strong showing against Jon Moxley in what amounted to the semifinal of the tourney. Moxley won that fight and the right to square off with Hiroshi Tanahashi in the main event of Forbidden Door, while O'Reilly hasn't wrestled since.
That bout against Moxley was predated by a strong run in the Owen Hart Memorial tournament for O'Reilly as well. He beat Jungle Boy in a qualifier and Rey Fenix in the opening round before losing to Samoa Joe in a hard-fought battle on the May 25 episode of Wednesday Night Dynamite. O'Reilly recently admitted that he'd been working for a majority of this push.
Speaking on the This is VANCOLOUR podcast, the longtime veteran had this to say about working through injuries: "Sometimes, the medical staff needs to save us from ourselves. As wrestlers, we'll go until the wheels fall off. 'My shoulder is hurt? Okay, I won't do any moves where I land on my shoulder.' We're crazy like that." O'Reilly went on to give an update specific to his situation. "This is something I've been dealing with, it's a nagging thing that I've been dealing with, specifically, pretty bad for the last five years. In the last few weeks of wrestling on AEW, I've been really banged up and didn't know the extent of it until now. I still don't know all the information, so I don't want to disclose exactly what is happening with me." As for how long he'll be on the shelf, O'Reilly said this: "I need more information and I should know probably this week what the recovery time is going to be and what the recovery will entail." (h/t to Fightful for the transcription)
That's some interesting insight from one of the toughest professional wrestlers in the game. Fans recently saw Cody Rhodes wrestle with a torn pec, as an example of a performer going until the wheels fall off. That's a phrase that CM Punk used during his recent promo about needing to take time off for surgery as well. AEW is dealing with an outbreak of injuries, many of which seem to be attributed to simply not taking care of health issues when they come up. The amount of damage that Kenny Omega is trying to undo right now is heartbreaking, in a word, and he recently said that if he ever gets hurt this badly again, he'll be done wrestling. The rehab has been that tough.
For O'Reilly, the timing of his shoulder issue is awful. With so many wrestlers at the top of the card injured, he was getting main-event level opportunities and was getting a pretty big push. Hopefully, AEW will try to pick that momentum up for him whenever he's able to return, but that usually isn't how pro wrestling works. Just ask Miro. This is why people wrestle hurt in the first place.
Sources: This is VANCOLOUR, Fightful