A planned Rhea Ripley match at WWE Crown Jewel was canceled due to a real-life injury disguised as a new storyline, according to a new report.
On October 29’s NXT, Ripley was attacked in the WWE Performance Center parking lot by current Women’s World Champion Liv Morgan (with whom she has been feuding since April) and Raquel Rodriguez.
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The former Women’s World Champion was subsequently announced to be out indefinitely, with the WWE issuing a statement saying, “Last night on NXT, Rhea Ripley was heinously attacked in the parking lot by Women’s World Champion Liv Morgan and her enforcer Raquel Rodriguez. Following the brutal attack, it has been revealed that The Nightmare has suffered a fractured right orbital socket, which will put Ripley out of action for an undisclosed amount of time.”
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter says that not only is her hiatus due to a legitimate fractured right orbital bone, but it also required the upcoming Crown Jewel event in Riyadh to be restructured, with a planned one-on-one match between Ripley and Rodriguez canceled.
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Interestingly, it appears that Ripley’s injury was actually due to a previous legit incident and the parking lot attack was hurriedly written to explain it.
Wrestling Observer writes, “The injury happened on the 10/21 Raw show, believed to be from a head-butt spot, but was kept quiet until they did a phantom angle on NXT. When Ripley was on NXT on 10/29 before the phantom angle, backstage putting over Zaria, she stood sideways where you could only see half of her face, and only the left eye.”
According to writer Dave Meltzer, the currently scheduled Crown Jewel Women’s Tag Team Championship Fatal 4-Way Match of Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair vs. Damage CTRL (Kairi Sane and Iyo Sky) vs. Meta-Four (Lash Legend and Jakara Jackson) vs. Chelsea Green and Piper Niven was a last-minute replacement for a Ripley vs. Rodriguez one-on-one.
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Ripley joined the WWE in 2017 and was part of the first roster NXT UK, becoming the first NXT UK Women’s Champion in August 2018. She became the first female Australian wrestler to hold the NXT Women’s Championship at NXT TakeOver: Blackpool II in 2020, and held the NXT UK Women’s Championship, further establishing her dominance in the women’s division.
Ripley later won the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship with Nikki A.S.H., Raw Women’s Championship. She is the seventh WWE Women’s Triple Crown Champion and the fifth WWE Women’s Grand Slam Champion, as well as the first woman to win a Royal Rumble match as the number one entrant.
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