WWE Forced To Scrap Planned Crown Jewel Match

WWE’s run into Crown Jewel hasn’t been straightforward.

On October 30th it was announced that Rhea Ripley would be out of action for an “undisclosed period” after suffering a fractured right orbital socket.

The news came after Ripley was attacked in the parking lot and left a bloody mess on the October 29th episode of NXT. Although footage of the assault wasn’t shown, Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez were shown leaving the scene with a baseball bat in hand.

Ripley is believed to have suffered the injury a week earlier, at the October 21st Raw taping.

It was subsequently reported that Rhea Ripley won’t appear on the episode of Raw being taped in Saudi Arabia during Crown Jewel weekend despite being previously advertised. However, other changes have also been made.

Rhea Ripley Pulled From WWE Crown Jewel

As reported in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Ripley had been scheduled to face Raquel Rodriguez at the Crown Jewel, but the match was scrapped. Dave Meltzer suggested the match was likely replaced by the Women’s Tag Team Title match.

The show was changed due an injury to Rhea Ripley. Ripley suffered a fractured right orbital bone that will put her out of action and ended up delaying the planned singles match with Rodriguez which was confirmed to have been on this show…

While we don’t know, it would appear that the four-way women’s tag team title match was the replacement match since it is the only match on the show that wasn’t scheduled before the Ripley injury.

Meltzer added that Crown Jewel is a seven-match card rather than a five-match card as has been the new norm for WWE in order to highlight the event’s importance.