7 Wrestlers Who Benefited From ANOTHER Wrestler's Injury

Bittersweetly, 2018 marked a defining year for Rhea Ripley's career. She went full-time with WWE, ditching the girl-next-door look for a grungier, gothic appearance for the second Mae Young Classic, filmed shortly before the maiden tapings for the NXT UK brand. There, she became the first Women's Champion.

Neither was the original plan.

Nixon Newell, competing as Tegan Nox, has long been rumoured to be WWE's intended Mae Young Classic champion, but her quarterfinal showing against Rhea was called off after three minutes. She tore her right ACL and meniscus, dislocated her patellar tendon, and sustained significant ligament damage: in short, her knee exploded, allowing Rhea to advance by default to the final four. Then, in the NXT UK Women's Championship Tournament, Ripley and Toni Storm, the planned first champion, contested the finals, but Toni sustained a spinal injury that forced WWE to pivot.

Seventeen days plugged the gap between Tegan and Toni's ailments, filling Rhea with deep mental anguish. She had cast herself as an unsafe worker, telling Flash Morgan Webster that it "didn't make [her] feel fantastic about [herself]". Luckily, nobody else saw things that way.