Rhea Ripley's Injury Has Had A MONSTER Impact On WWE's Plans (WWE News)
WWE's creative team forced to reshuffle on SmackDown due to nasty Rhea Ripley injury blow.
News broke recently that reigning Women's Champion and SmackDown's top female babyface Rhea Ripley is currently out with a knee injury. Worse, there's no timeline for her return, so WWE will have sit and wait it out for now along with Rhea and the fanbase.
There are even concerns that Ripley will miss SummerSlam in early-August.
All plans for the Women's Title have been iced for the time being. Now, WrestleVotes Radio on Fightful Select is reporting that "there has been significant shuffling" on Rhea's status, as well as booking for the wider division on Friday nights. This has had a nasty knock on effect to creative plans.
Interestingly, the company has adjusted promotional materials for the upcoming Night Of Champions PLE in Saudi Arabia on 27 June. 'Mami' has been removed from those and replaced by current Women's United States Champion (and still babyface herself) Tiffany Stratton.
Clearly, this is a blow for everyone involved. Rhea won the strap by beating Jade Cargill back at WrestleMania 42 in Las Vegas, but it doesn't feel like her title reign has properly got going come June. The injury is only partly responsible for that - Hunter has shown an annoying habit of failing to book champions well after they win gold.
Liv Morgan is going through something similar over on Raw with the Women's World Title. An injury to her main challenger Stephanie Vaquer derailed planning, and has caused Liv to tumble around without any clear direction other than working in the Queen Of The Ring tournament.
Here's hoping Ripley makes a full recovery sooner rather than later.