Injured Rhea Ripley Makes Heartbreaking WWE Women's World Title Decision
What will become of Rhea Ripley and the Women's World Title after Raw?
The rumors swirling around social media Monday were unfortunately true: Rhea Ripley vacated her WWE Women's World Championship on Raw due to injury, ending her reign at 380 days.
Ripley, who won the title at WrestleMania 39 when she defeated Charlotte Flair in an instant classic, had most recently defended her title against Becky Lynch at WrestleMania 40 and was poised for post-Mania feud with Liv Morgan before being sidelined.
Mami opened Raw, coming to the ring and admitting that she had been hurt during Morgan's backstage attack last week and would be "stuck on the bench for quite a few months." Fans didn't take the news well, calling the decision to vacate the title "bulls***," to which she agreed.
Before leaving, Rhea warned anyone whoever ends up with the Women's World Championship that she would be coming for them, and she would be out for blood. Morgan came out to taunt her, giving fans one last Ripley assault of a poor, hapless security guard before she left.
Later on Raw, WWE announced that they would crown a new Women's World Champion next week on Raw, but they did not disclose how they would do that. Given that it will be a one-night situation, it could be options such as a gauntlet match, a multi-woman match, a battle royal, or a mini-tournament with two matches and the winner of each facing off for the title.
— WWE (@WWE) April 16, 2024
Fightful Select reported that shortly after the backstage segment last week between Ripley and Morgan -- during which Liv threw a chair at Rhea's head -- word emerged that Ripley was injured, with internal discussions about the possibility of vacating the title surfacing as far back as last Wednesday.
According to Fightful, the injury was described as "a freak accident" and happened when Rhea went into the walls during the fight. Although Morgan is playing up the injury as karma and part of her revenge tour, Fightful has been told there's no heat on her and was not being blamed by Ripley or WWE.
Best wishes to Rhea for a speedy recovery.