Rhea Ripley isn’t expected to wrestle until her match against Liv Morgan at Summerslam.
The former Women’s World Champion hasn’t wrestled since WrestleMania 40 in April. She defeated Becky Lynch to open the event. However, Ripley suffered an injury at the hands of Liv on the following Raw. This put her out of action for months, forcing her to vacate her title.
Ripley returned on Raw last week to confront Morgan, and this week challenged her to a match at Summerslam. Despite this, she did not get physical with the champion, adding concerns about her current status.
According to a report from Mike Johnson of PWInsider, Rhea Ripley is “not 100% cleared for physicality”. They report that she is expected to be cleared by Summerslam. However, she won’t compete in the ring before that.
There was concern she would not be cleared for the event, with talk of her returning post-Summerslam. However, Rhea Ripley felt confident she’d be cleared by the show’s date.
“We are also told that Ripley has not been 100% cleared for physicality but sources expect that process to be completed by the PPV,” said PWInsider’s Mike Johnson. “She will not have any physical interactions until she is cleared, so there will be a lot of teases and working around it until she gets the 100% green light. We are also told that initially, there was talk of Ripley returning to storylines at Summerslam or the Raw the day after, but instead the decision was made to go with her vs. Morgan at Summerslam, in part because we are told by sources that Ripley voiced that she believed she would be good to go by the August event calendar.”