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At the 2026 SummerSlam, we got an Interim WWE Women’s Champion in Chelsea Green, who defeated Charlotte Flair, Jade Cargill, Lash Legend and Tiffany Stratton in a chaotic five-woman ladder match. And now, it may seem Green’s Interim title status may become permanent.
Back at Clash in Itay on May 31st, 2026, the current WWE Women’s Champion, Rhea Ripley, was defending her title against Jade Cargill when Ripley was injured mid-match. She did not visibly register the injury right away, so she wrestled through the finish to retain her title and even worked a couple of subsequent multi-woman tag team matches on WWE’s European tour few days afterwards. After returning from Europe, her injury had worsened and was further evaluated in the States. Ripley’s knee injury was officially announced on the June 12th, 2026, episode of SmackDown, but the exact injury or the extent of it was kept under wraps, hoping that rehabilitation would only be needed in order to avoid surgical intervention.
As we now know, Ripley’s injury was a torn meniscus in her right knee, and General Manager Adam Pearce announced she would not be able to compete at SummerSlam. This lead to multiple qualifier matches for the Interim WWE Women’s Championship Ladder Match at SummerSlam, which was won by Chelsea Green.
On August 6th, Ripley went to her Instagram account to post an unfortunate update. She mentioned she had just undergone right knee surgery while posting a picture of her wrapped-up and braced right knee and leg. She mentioned this was her first ever surgery in sports, and this was never a first option for her. But it got to the point that it was needed.
This is what she posted on her Instagram:
Life update.
After just under 14 year in wrestling and doing sports my entire life… It’s caught up to me. Surgery was never a first option for me, but it got to the point that it was needed…
First one down…
Hopefully no more…
I’ve survived, now it’s time to start thriving again so I can get back to what I love to do!
See you all down the road. 🤘🏼
Bryan Alvarez from f4wonline chimed in, noting that:
“there have been ‘rumblings’ that Ripley could end up vacating the title after all with Green becoming the official champion. It’s expected that more information will come on SmackDown this Friday.”
If, in fact, Rhea Ripley is determined to be out of action for the approximate timeframe of 4-6 months for such a surgery, we may be looking at a major announcement tonight on SmackDown involving the Interim WWE Women’s Championship Title.
You can watch Friday Night SmackDown tonight at 8pm ET on the USA Network in the USA, or streaming on Netflix internationally.
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