Rhea Ripley’s usage is becoming a popular topic amongst the fans, so we’ll see what’s going
on there. We’ll also check out what’s going on with the women’s division, Randy Orton, and more
Let’s start things off with Rhea Ripley because
this is a situation that more and more fans are picking up on
Rhea was last pinned in May 2022 by Liv Morgan, and ever since taking that loss,
she hasn’t been pinned ever since and just went on this entire dominant
run that included winning the Royal Rumble match from the number one spot,
and defeating Charlotte Flair for the women’s world title at Wrestlemania
So everything leading up to Rhea Ripley’s title win at Wrestlemania was pretty perfect
She was protected for several months, never got pinned,
got some impressive wins, and that all led to that big title win
But the booking issues with Rhea’s usage started right after she won the title
Rhea Ripley is now entering her fifth month as WWE women’s world champion,
and that may already sound like a great reign when you hear five months, but Rhea has only
defended her title against pretty much two superstars throughout that entire time
She had the match with Zelina Vega, a trilogy of matches with Natalya, and that’s pretty much it
After the Natalya feud ended, Rhea Ripley did immediately start up a
program with Raquel Rodriguez and Liv Morgan
It seemed like that was going somewhere for a bit there. Rhea took out Raquel and then took out Liv
Which led to Raquel returning during the July 31st
edition of Raw to attack Rhea Ripley as many fans expected to see
But fans also expected to see a last second addition get made to
the Summerslam card for Rhea Ripley versus Raquel, but that didn’t end up happening
Which confirms that Rhea Ripley will miss
Summerslam and not have a title defense on the card
Not to mention that Rhea Ripley also didn’t have a title defense
during July’s Money In The Bank premium live event
If you wanna find Rhea Ripley’s last premium live event title defense, you gotta go back to May
27th at Night Of Champions against Natalya in a match that barely lasted ten seconds
So a situation like this is pretty unheard of and that’s
what has fans wondering what’s going on here
If Rhea Ripley wasn’t the champion and was missing these events then sure,
it wouldn’t be that big of a deal
But for her to actively be a world champion and hasn’t had a premium
live event title defense since May… that’s just pretty mind blowing
So fans started to wonder if maybe Rhea Ripley was hurt, or if there’s another
reason to why she’s constantly not booked for premium live events as a defending champion
Well all signs and indications seem to point to Rhea Ripley
being perfectly healthy and okay to compete in the ring
She gets physical nearly every episode of Raw and seems more than cleared to compete
Rhea Ripley even liked a few fan tweets about her Summerslam absence
She liked a tweet from one fan that said Rhea, Becky,
and Trish should all have the right to be upset about missing Summerslam
She liked another tweet from another fan that pointed out how there was
space for Logan Paul on the card but not for one of the women’s champions
So it’s all true points that the fans are making here. It’s common sense
that obviously the whole roster won’t be able to make it onto the Summerslam card,
but it’s just so bizarre that even one of the main world champions in the women’s
division can’t make it onto the card, that’s the big story here
Not only is she constantly missing out on premium live events, but fans have also pointed
out that Rhea Ripley sort of gets booked as a background character even within The Judgment Day
You got Damian Priest and Finn Balor at the forefront of everything involved
with the world title and the money in the bank contract. Then you got
Dominik Mysterio even now doing his own thing as North American Champion
But everything with Rhea Ripley’s stories and feuds just seems a bit directionless,
inconsistent, and in the background of everything else going on with The Judgment Day
So it’s very unfortunate and very strange for Rhea Ripley, a current champion,
to be left off one of the biggest cards of the year, but it does look like Raquel
will be her next opponent, we just have to wait and see when they match will take place
—————
In a related topic to Rhea Ripley’s situation,
It’s also now being reported and rumored that there’s apparently a
lot of growing frustration across the entire women’s division for how it’s being handled
And there’s several situations going on right now
where you could definitely understand the frustration
For example, things still haven’t changed much with the women’s tag team titles
There’s barely any division around the titles, they swap hands every few weeks,
and new champions get booked in strange ways right from the jump
Just like how we saw Sonya and Chelsea’s first match as the new
tag team champions end with them losing to Charlotte Flair and Bianca Belair
Then with the WWE women’s title on Smackdown, that entire buildup to
Summerslam was getting some mixed reactions from fans for some questionable decisions as well
The biggest criticism there was how Bianca and Charlotte appeared to be
the center of the story more than the actual women’s champion, Aus-ka, herself
And over on Raw, we just went over the situation with Rhea Ripley and
her lack of title defenses at premium live events
And of course the other big story in recent days was Trish Stratus and Becky
Lynch’s match being cancelled from taking place at Summerslam
An update has come out on that situation as well. Fightful reports that Becky and Trish are
both healthy and available for Summerslam, but the match had to be pulled due to time related issues
If they had that match at Summerslam, it was most likely going to be extremely short,
so that’s why the decision was made to move it to Raw
Trish and Becky have very been subtly voicing their frustration through social media
Trish reposted a fan’s message to her Instagram story saying how everyone
needs to keep talking about Trish and Becky being pulled from Summerslam
Becky Lynch took to her Instagram to post some behind the scenes pictures WWE had her take for
the Summerslam photoshoot with a caption that red: ‘this was the shoot I did for Summerslam’
Becky added four dots at the end of that caption
Becky was basically saying ‘look, they had me at the photoshoot,
but didn’t put me on the Summerslam card’
So you can definitely sense the frustration from Rhea Ripley, Becky Lynch, and Trish Stratus
And according to these new reports, they’re not the only three women that are frustrated
Apparently there’s even more superstars in the women’s division that aren’t so thrilled right now
—————
One of the biggest rumored returns of the entire year has been the return of Randy Orton
Well another update has come out regarding Randy’s return, coming from Fightful
They’re reporting that as of the first week of August,
Randy Orton has still not been medically cleared to compete
They also claim that Randy has not taken any bumps in
the ring as of late and hasn’t even been running the ropes yet at all
It’s also being reported that his name isn’t even being brought up in creative
discussions because he obviously still has a way to go before returning to the ring
Randy Orton’s return has been discussed by fans all year long
People were talking about his return at the 2023 Royal Rumble, during Wrestlemania 39 week,
and recently during Summerslam season, but judging by these new updates,
it will still be a decent little while before we see Randy Orton back in the ring
But what are your thoughts on today’s stories?
Leave your comments below, don’t forget to subscribe with all notifications on,
and leave a like if you enjoyed!
Thanks for watching guys