There are a number of champions currently on the WWE roster, but one of them appears to be sidelined for the foreseeable future. Months ago Rhea Ripley suffered an injury which has kept her out of action since June.
In Rhea Ripley’s absence WWE crowned an interim WWE Women’s Champion at SummerSlam when Chelsea Green won a five way ladder match. Now Rhea Ripley has confirmed that she recently underwent surgery which will keep her on the shelf for quite some time.
Bryan Alvarez shared an update on the status of the WWE Women’s Championship on Wrestling Observer Live and noted that WWE could announce Rhea has been stripped of her championship on SmackDown.
“Probably gonna be out quite a while. The reason they did the interim title was because the claim was, ‘She’s gone. We don’t think it’s gonna be too long, but just in case we’re gonna do an interim title.’ Now it turns out she’s gonna be gone a long, long time. It’s possible that tomorrow they may announce Chelsea is the champion, and they’re stripping Rhea. But it looks like she’s gonna be gone for quite a while.”
Chelsea Green is confirmed for tonight’s episode of SmackDown, so it will be interesting to see how things play out during the show. Stay tuned for updates.