Rhea Ripley recently wrestled in her first match in 5 months, when she wrestled in a “Pick Your Poison” Match in NXT on October 18, 2022. She had appeared regularly on TV alongside the rest of Judgement Day (Finn Balor, Damian Priest and Dominik Mysterio), but has been kept out of the ring since June all the way through until October/November.
It was later revealed that a “brain and teeth” injury was the cause of the missing time, although WWE failed to elaborate. They kept quiet on the injury, despite her last match being a victory in a four way match against Alexa Bliss, Doudrop and Liv Morgan. She became the number one contender to the Raw Women’s Championship with the win, but never got the match as injury made her miss the show she was supposed to wrestle on.
The former NXT Women’s Champion has been quiet about her injury recently, although recently spoke to the New York Post about how the injury kept her out of the ring, and that she hasn’t been cleared to wrestle “for the longest time”. She also said she was only cleared a week before her NXT match last month, showing just how bad the injury really was for Rhea Ripley.
A lot of it was the injury. I hadn’t been cleared for the longest time. I think I got cleared properly and fully the week before my NXT match (on Oct. 18). Apart from that, I pretty much wasn’t cleared that whole time (four months). After that there pretty much hasn’t been an opportunity for me to wrestle because I have been there with The Judgement Day and sort of their muscle. I help them out if they need me. I’m “the problem” as the OC would say. I feel like my wrestling career is just starting up again.
Rhea Ripley recently wrestled in the first ever main roster War Games match at WWE Survivor Series 2022.