“If Rey Mysterio can make it to Unforgiven, he won’t be alone.”

That’s how SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long informed The Great Khali that his World Heavyweight Title defense at Sunday’s pay-per-view was now a Triple Threat Match that also included Batista. But the one word that is perhaps more telling – and alarming – than anything else in Long’s remark is the two-letter conjunction that immediately casts doubt and pessimism in any phrase, regardless of its use:

“If.”

At this moment, Rey Mysterio’s chances of making it to Unforgiven this Sunday are a very strong, very uncertain “if.” And even if he does make it, the likelihood that he’s in any condition to make an impact against The Animal and Khali, much less win the World Heavyweight Title, is an “if” that’s far bigger than even the 7-foot-3, 420-pound champion who almost crushed his skull last week on SmackDown.

WWE.com’s attempts to contact the masked Superstar have gone for naught. Even his fellow SmackDown Superstars haven’t heard a word, either from him or about his condition since The Great Khali Vise Gripped him last week in Cincinnati’s U.S. Bank Arena. Overall, WWE personnel around the locker and training rooms are still speechless regarding the World Heavyweight Champion’s heinous attack on Rey, who only moments before had emerged triumphant over Chavo Guerrero in a grueling “I Quit” Match. The victory was supposed to represent personal redemption for Mysterio; instead, it may now serve as a chilling reminder of the moments that followed next.

There’s a reason why the Khali Vise Grip is so dangerous. Let’s put it this way: Once an object is rendered immobile, the two “jaws” on a basic hand vise can exert up to thousands of pounds of pressure, compressing the object from both sides. Well, last Friday in Cincinnati, Rey Mysterio’s skull became that immobilized object, and The Great Khali’s paws – three times the size of an average human hand – were the clamps that tried squashing it.

Had Batista not intervened, Khali might well have succeeded. Like the basketball he had literally popped with his bare hands several weeks prior, the 7-foot-3 Punjabi Goliath squeezed so tight that his opposing fingers – the tallest being his middle, which measure an astonishing six inches from tip to knuckle – were actually able to lock together onto the cranium of his battle-weary “David.” Mysterio must have felt like the contents of a soda can that had been shaken for days, with the pressure on his skull intensifying to the point that red liquid had nowhere else to flow except from his mouth. Except it wasn’t some carbonated beverage in this instance; it was Rey’s blood.

Our fans in the U.S. Bank Arena watched in horror as the struggling Mysterio, after being lifted and held high in the air by his Vise Gripped head, slumped to the canvas, completely motionless. As his masked features and chest grew crimsoned, it became frighteningly obvious to them that Rey was in serious distress; beyond the fact that he was bleeding from the mouth, the pressure from Khali’s hands had clearly begun depriving his brain of life-giving oxygen.

Yes, Batista had come to the aid of his friend, as had WWE officials and EMT’s moments later…but was it too late for Unforgiven? There’s no denying that a former World Champion like Rey Mysterio has toppled many giants throughout his career. However, even at 100 percent, Rey would be hard-pressed (no pun intended) to measure up against The Great Khali. Now, with Triple Threat Match rules and a championship-hunting Animal added to the equation, the odds appear doubly stacked against the Master of the 619 – if he hasn’t suffered such severe head trauma that he can’t even make it to Memphis’s FedEx Forum this Sunday.

Then again, perhaps our questions shouldn’t revolve around “if Rey Mysterio makes it to Unforgiven.” For his sake, perhaps we should be asking, “Should Rey Mysterio make it to Unforgiven?”

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