Rhea Ripley’s knee didn’t just cost her SummerSlam. It sent WWE back to the drawing board on several fronts.
With the WWE Women’s Champion sidelined by a meniscus injury, an Interim WWE Women’s Champion will be crowned in a ladder match at the event. Per WrestleVotes on Fightful Select, the fallout ran deeper than that one change, scrapping a proposed match between Jade Cargill and Charlotte Flair.
Tiffany Stratton’s night changed too. The Women’s United States Champion was originally slotted to defend her title at SummerSlam in her home state of Minnesota. Instead, she’ll be climbing for the interim championship, having already qualified alongside Cargill.
The most telling detail concerns Ripley herself. A source told WrestleVotes there was a strong internal push for her to take the full amount of time needed to properly recover rather than rushing to make the SummerSlam date. The worry was that the injury could have worsened and created far bigger problems down the road. WWE is hopeful she’ll be ready to go by the fall.
Ripley suffered the injury on May 31 while defending the title against Cargill at Clash in Italy and hasn’t been medically cleared since. She won’t be stripped of the championship, with the interim titleholder eventually facing her to determine an undisputed champion once she’s back.
WWE SummerSlam takes place August 1 and 2 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.
