Rhea Ripley Injured - Current Status 'Up In The Air' (WWE News)
Reigning Women's Champion and top female star Rhea Ripley has suffered a knee injury.
WWE announcers Joe Tessitore and Wade Barrett announced that Rhea Ripley is currently fighting through a knee injury suffered at Clash In Italy during Friday's episode of SmackDown. The commentary team stated that the reigning Women's Champion is being evaluated by doctors, but there's no known timescale for her return to the ring.
That's a major bummer for Ripley and the creative team.
Typically, WWE would strip someone of their gold and make the belt vacant mid-injury, but Triple H might not be so hasty with Rhea. After all, it's still up in the air whether or not she'll be out for too long. If she's able to make a startling recovery and keep going, then management will surely stick by 'Mami'.
It's worth noting that Ripley has wrestled since Clash over in Turin. She worked twin 6-woman tags alongside Charlotte Flair and Tiffany Stratton (vs. Fatal Influence) during WWE's recent European tour on 2 and 3 June. However, Rhea hasn't hit the ring for more active work since then, so it's clear that the company plans to be very careful with her - which is smart.
Big matches against the likes of Flair, newcomer Blake Monroe and more are in the pipeline. It's the Charlotte story that has most people talking though. Rhea and Flair have been working an odd couple tag dynamic in recent weeks on TV, so something is simmering there.
Concurrent reports place Charlotte in the firing line for a huge clash vs. Jade Cargill at SummerSlam in early-August.