It’s been a big year for WWE premium live events and back in May the company traveled to Puerto Rico for Backlash. Zelina Vega challenged Rhea Ripley for the WWE Women’s World Championship at the event, and it sounds like WWE originally had very different plans for the match.
Fightful Select is reporting that the original plan for the WWE Women’s World Title match at Backlash was for Rhea Ripley to squash Zelina Vega. However, the decision was made to change plans which resulted in Zelina Vega having a very well received match, and getting a special reaction from the fans in Puerto Rico. It’s also being said that Rhea Ripley was happy to accommodate the change to the match.
According to the report much of the push that followed for Zelina Vega was due to her performance and the reception she got from the audience. WWE sources indicated that the feeling was the change was a good one as it helped everyone involved and gave Rhea Ripley a memorable title defense.
Currently neither Rhea Ripley nor Zelina Vega are officially booked for the upcoming SummerSlam premium live event, but it’s rumored that Ripley could be defending the WWE Women’s World Title against Raquel Rodriguez at the show.