WWE announced on Wednesday evening that Rhea Ripley had fractured her right orbital socket as a result of an attack on this week’s NXT.
Ripley made a special appearance, giving a speech to some of the women’s division stars. Before the main event, Women’s World Champions Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez attacked the top WWE star with baseball bats.
The camera followed Ripley as she lay next to her car, with a cut on her head and fake blood pouring out. As previously reported by Fightful, NXT members were concerned about the amount of blood shown. It was approved by “a higher power” within the brand, which could be Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Lee Fitting, or a CW executive.
Following the announcement, PWInsider.com reported that they had been told there was an injury behind the angle. While speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer stated that the injury is legitimate and that the break most likely occurred on last week’s WWE Raw.
Meltzer stated, “She’s got a fractured orbital bone. So, the injury that they announced is pretty much legit. Yeah, it happened last week. I’m not sure, probably the last TV thing, because she hasn’t worked any house shows. So probably in the last TV angle that she did with Raquel, you know, was where it happened most likely. And she is going to be out for a while, and I guess that’s, I don’t know, 100% that’s why she’s not on the pay-per-view, because I did hear that match for the pay-per-view. It happened last week, and then they did this thing as a cover because, you know, to basically have a reason for her to be out of action.
(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)
