Update on Bron Breakker injury, potential WWE return timeline
On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer provided some more information regarding the injury Bron Breakker is dealing with.
The road to WrestleMania took an unexpected turn with it being revealed over the weekend that Breakker has undergone hernia surgery. It is not yet known if Breakker will be back in time for WrestleMania 42. Meltzer noted that Breakker’s hernia has been an issue for a while, but it did not cause Breakker’s early elimination from the Royal Rumble. The situation only very recently reached a point where Breakker needed to have surgery done.
“That had nothing to do with the Royal Rumble,” Meltzer said. “People are going like, ‘Oh, that’s why they did the thing at the Rumble.’ It’s like, it had nothing to do with the Rumble, even though, yeah, he probably had it long before that. It had nothing to do with any bookings, anything that they were doing. And then it was just like he got checked out and had to have emergency surgery. That’s the basic story on that.”
Breakker entered the 2026 men’s Royal Rumble match at number two but was quickly eliminated as part of an angle where he attacked by a hooded figure. The angle appeared to be setting up a Breakker vs. Seth Rollins match for WrestleMania 42 this April if Rollins is able to return from his own shoulder injury in time.
Meltzer has not heard a timeline for when Breakker will be back, though the surgery that Breakker underwent was a major operation and not a minimally invasive one. Even an optimistic recovery timeline could put Breakker’s WrestleMania status in question.
“He’ll be out for a while. As far as how long, though, nobody’s really given me a timetable,” Meltzer said. “I looked up some stuff. You know, it could be 12 weeks, it could be six months at worst, probably not that long. But, again, I don’t know all the details. People have had the other surgery, and that’s usually about a two-month recovery, but his situation was worse than the regular surgery — Paul Heyman even talked about, this wasn’t the laparoscopy, this was a major operation.”
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.