Rhea Ripley undergoes knee surgery, update on WWE Women’s title situation
WWE Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley has undergone surgery for the injury that’s kept her out of action since June.
Shortly after Clash in Italy, it was announced that Ripley was being evaluated for a knee injury. The issue was later revealed to be a slight tear of Ripley’s meniscus. She provided an update today and shared that she’s undergone surgery to repair the injury. While this wasn’t Ripley’s preferred path, surgery ended up being necessary. This is the first surgery she’s ever needed to have done.
Ripley wrote:
- Life update.
- After just under 14 year in wrestling and doing sports my entire life… It’s caught up to me. Surgery was never a first option for me, but it got to the point that it was needed…
- First one down…
- Hopefully no more…
- I’ve survived, now it’s time to start thriving again so I can get back to what I love to do!
- See you all down the road.
Ripley’s most recent televised match was her successful WWE Women’s Championship defense against Jade Cargill at Clash in Italy on May 31. She worked a couple of European tour house show dates after that before being sidelined.
WWE Women’s Championship situation —
Ripley remains the WWE Women’s Champion as of now, but the company has crowned an interim champion in her absence. Chelsea Green won a five-way ladder match at SummerSlam for the interim belt. Our Bryan Alvarez notes that there have been “rumblings” that Ripley could end up vacating the title after all with Green becoming the official champion. It’s expected that more information will come on SmackDown this Friday.
Before Ripley was forced out of action, she was likely going to face either Alexa Bliss or Jacy Jayne at SummerSlam. It was reported at the time that WWE made a “strong internal push” for Ripley to fully recover from the injury instead of risking things by coming back too soon.
A timeline for Ripley’s return to the ring has not been announced.
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.