Bad News Barrett Injured - Huge Doubt For WWE Money In The Bank

Last night's WWE Smackdown taping in Pittsburgh unfortunately had some bad news. The current Intercontinental Champion Bad News Barrett (aka Wade Barrett) suffered a shoulder injury that is so severe that it has put his participation in Sunday's Money In The Bank event in serious doubt. He was scheduled to take part in the Money in the Bank contract ladder match. Late on Tuesday night, an update was provided by WWE.com, who talked to WWE physician Dr. Chris Amann about the injury: "Barrett sustained an injury to his right shoulder when he was thrown into the barricade by Jack Swagger. After Barrett felt an immediate pain and a pop we brought him back to the training room and the exam showed a separated shoulder. We€™re going to do some additional testing this week and then sit down with him and talk about options for treatment for this injury." While we are awaiting further details, Dave Meltzer of F4WOnline.com notes that Barrett was clutching his shoulder and swearing loudly, which is similar to when he had an elbow injury that required surgery a few years ago. The "X" sign was thrown up immediately. That's the sign that WWE uses when a wrestler is legitimately hurt and requires assistance. Is Jack Swagger to blame for the injury? It's hard to say without seeing it. Wrestlers get thrown into the barricade or other objects around ringside all the time. It could be a case of Barrett not preparing himself for the bump or perhaps Swagger was too aggressive when he threw him. We don't know at this point. Barrett was considered one of the favorites in the Money in the Bank contract ladder match. The match also features Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, Jack Swagger, Kofi Kingston, Rob Van Dam and Dolph Ziggler. Of the seven men, most fans only considered Rollins, Ambrose and Barrett as potential winners. Ziggler has an outside shot too. Swagger, Kingston and RVD are there as veterans that are capable workers, but not really threats to win the match. If Barrett was in so much pain that he needed assistance on Smackdown then it's very doubtful that he would be able to compete on Sunday at Money in the Bank. It will be interesting to see how WWE addresses it during Friday's Smackdown broadcast and if they replace Barrett in the match. They don't have to replace him because the match could definitely work with just six participants, but they could have somebody in mind. It's too soon to know exactly what the severity of the injury is. Hopefully it doesn't require surgery. If it's separated then he will still miss weeks and possibly months of action, which would likely mean the end of his Intercontinental Title reign as well. If it's just a bruise then he could be ready for Sunday. Once again, we just don't know at this point. We will provide more updates on the status of Bad News Barrett when we receive it. Let's hope that the only news we receive is good news for the man they call Bad News because he's been on quite a roll lately. It would be unfortunate if he missed a significant amount of time.