{"id":164520,"date":"2026-07-17T20:50:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T00:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=164520"},"modified":"2026-07-17T21:11:54","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T01:11:54","slug":"rhea-ripley-injury-keeps-her-out-of-summerslam-2026-match-set-to-crown-interim-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2026\/07\/17\/rhea-ripley-injury-keeps-her-out-of-summerslam-2026-match-set-to-crown-interim-champion\/","title":{"rendered":"Rhea Ripley Injury Keeps Her Out of SummerSlam 2026, Match Set to Crown Interim Champion"},"content":{"rendered":"

On this week’s WWE SmackDown<\/a>, acting General Manager Adam Pearce made it known that Rhea Ripley’s injury<\/a> will keep Mami out of competition at SummerSlam 2026. That said, WWE has made a huge decision that will ensure that there will be a WWE Women’s Champion<\/a> active on the Blue Brand.<\/p>\n

Rhea Ripley Injury Prompts WWE to Crown Interim Champion at SummerSlam 2026<\/h2>\n
\"WWE
A WWE SmackDown graphic featuring Tiffany Stratton. (Photo Credit: WWE)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SmackDown in Albany, New York saw four SmackDown superstars go at it in a series of qualifiers. What for? Well, a 5-Woman Ladder Match will be set for SummerSlam 2026, with the victor of said match becoming Interim WWE Women’s Champion. Friday night, we saw Jacy Jayne, Tiffany Stratton, Nia Jax, and Jade Cargill compete for the first two slots for the 5-Woman War at SummerSlam 2026<\/a>, with Tiffany Stratton already advancing by beating Jacy Jayne. Jade Cargill also advanced after a quick disqualification caused by Charlotte Flair.<\/p>\n

Over the next few weeks, three more will join them in this battle to become Interim WWE Women’s Champion. That said, Adam Pearce has made it explicitly clear that once<\/em> Rhea Ripley is back, the two holders of the title will go at it one-on-one to crown an Undisputed WWE Women’s Champion.<\/p>\n

\"WWE
Rhea Ripley will face WWE Women’s Champion Jade Cargill on WrestleMania 42 Sunday on April 19 (Photo Credit: WWE)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It’s been a horrible first half of 2026 for Rhea Ripley. She’s managed to get back from injury in the first quarter of the year, and now she’s back on the shelf after sustaining an injury in Lisbon, Portugal. But, of course, the show must go on, and it will. SummerSlam will now have another ladder match, among the dozens of classics they’ve had at the “Biggest Party of the Summer.”<\/p>\n

\"WWE
Rhea Ripley vs. Jade Cargill (WWE)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rhea Ripley has had some major setbacks, dating back to 2024. That said, she’s resilient, and she’s the face of the WWE Women’s Division, and we’re confident that she’ll be back before we all know it, and she will claim the title as Undisputed WWE Women’s Champion in no time.<\/p>\n

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On this week’s WWE SmackDown, acting General Manager Adam Pearce made it known that Rhea Ripley’s injury will keep Mami out of competition at SummerSlam 2026. That said, WWE has made a huge decision that will ensure that there will be a WWE Women’s Champion active on the Blue Brand. Rhea Ripley Injury Prompts WWE […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3735,"featured_media":160698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,2,12,2192,25,26,3],"tags":[8023,3041,9723,8618],"class_list":["post-164520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wwe","category-featured","category-news","category-wrestling","category-raw","category-smackdown","category-wwe-universe","tag-jacy-jayne","tag-rhea-ripley","tag-summerslam-2026","tag-tiffany-stratton"],"modified_by":"Michael Joseph Sugue, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3735"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164520"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":164540,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164520\/revisions\/164540"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}