WWE announced on Monday’s Raw that Rhea Ripley had been pulled from her match against Raw Women’s Champion Bianca Belair at the Money in the Bank event due to an injury.
On Wednesday, Ripley responded to a fan on Instagram who noted that she didn’t look like someone who was injured. It appears she was injured when she landed after taking a DDT from Liv Morgan on the June 6th Raw and her knee collided with her face after her foot hit the ring rope.
https://twitter.com/WrestlingNewsCo/status/1539042429294215174
Ripley’s response to the fan stated that she’s dealing with the following issues: “brain/teeth. Can’t see a brain injury. Stop being incompetent and reaching at nothing.” Based on the description of the injury, it sounded like she has a concussion.
During today’s Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez discussed Rhea’s status. Meltzer noted that she is not expected to be out of action for long.
“Her teeth were knocked loose in a match and she had braces put in. The braces were evident on her the last time she was on TV. The other thing must’ve been when she says her brain that usually means a concussion. As we’ve said before, we said it on Monday when we announced it. The two things that WWE doesn’t like to talk about are COVID and concussions. I’ve known people in WWE who have both who have [said] outright, ‘We’re told not to say that.’ She said it. She didn’t quite use the word concussion, but she had a brain injury is what she said. I was told…she’s not going to be on the pay-per-view, obviously. They made that very clear, but it’s not expected to be a long-term absence either. She’s expected to be back fairly soon.”
Alvarez pointed out that they were told the same thing about Bryan Danielson’s recovery time years ago, but Meltzer said the difference is Danielson had nearly two dozen concussions and Ripley hasn’t had that many concussions.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Wrestling Observer Radio with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription. A WrestlingObserver.com subscription includes the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and daily audio shows in addition to thousands of hours of archived audio shows.
