Welcome to another eWrestlingNews Question of the Day!
Rhea Ripley was written off television on Tuesday’s episode of NXT, apparently due to a fractured right orbital socket injury that will put her on the shelf for an undisclosed amount of time.
Whether WWE had plans to put the title on her (which would seemingly have been the case) or not, that’s off the table until at least she’s cleared to compete. As we don’t know when that will be, it’s time for us to run the speculation game of what to do next.
My question for you today is “How should WWE pivot with Liv Morgan, Raquel Rodriguez, and Rhea Ripley following this injury?”
Remember to answer with your response in the comments below.
I don’t see a lot of panic around this, but I honestly feel like this is a major blow to the scene and something that can screw up many months. Liv Morgan’s held this title for so long and gone through so many placeholder feuds that I can’t help but to feel like there’s no one left for her. At least, no one left who would be compelling to watch.
I don’t need to see Morgan against Lyra Valkyria again, or against Natalya, or Zelina Vega. Katana Chance and Kayden Carter cannot realistically be built up enough for me to care about that feud. The same for Maxxine Dupri, who would never stand a chance to win the title. Pretty much everyone else on Raw is a heel, and even if you were to fully turn Damage CTRL babyface, all but two of them are injured as well.
A lot of what to do next depends on when Ripley will be cleared. If it’s just a month, that’s not too much time to kill. Morgan can have a temporary feud with probably Nattie in the meantime. It won’t be amazing, but it’ll be something. Then, Ripley can immediately go back on the attack, win the title, and we can move on to whatever she’s doing for the Road to WrestleMania 41.
I do not think this feud has the legs to stretch into WrestleMania itself. Unless Ripley is going to be out until something like very late February or March, I don’t see a road to wait for Rhea to beat Morgan until then. Then again, I don’t see any obvious Ripley versus (blank) match in mind for Mania, either, which is difficult for me to wrap my mind around. I know if they’re stuck with just the Raw roster, they’ll probably go with Ripley against Iyo Sky, which isn’t good enough for me for WrestleMania. That’s a great match that would play well for a B event, but it will get swallowed up into the undercard at the biggest show of the year. And even worse, Morgan defending the title against anyone at all, unless it’s Ripley, would be an even less impactful match.
If Ripley is gone for more than a month, Morgan would need to feud with Natalya and at least one other person. Again, I don’t think there’s an option to drag one person out. I’d probably book a battle royal to determine the next No. 1 contender, where Nattie would win by last eliminating Raquel, who could be in the match under the guise that if she wins, Liv basically gets time off and doesn’t have to defend the title. That would set up a match between Natalya and Rodriguez to kill more time, probably ending with Nattie winning by disqualification, and finally, the title match. There’s 3 weeks, and a fourth could be eaten up with either a tag team match or one face-to-face promo that would have to be written really well to give audiences a reason to get behind Natalya in a better way than the traditional “it’s just Nattie” way they tend to write her.
Suffice it to say, I’m crossing my fingers that Ripley is ready to step back in the ring as soon as possible and wins the title back very quickly.
What do you think? Drop your thoughts below!