Rhea Ripley moved to temper fans’ expectations about a WWE in-ring return anytime soon after a new video of her went viral on Wednesday, September 23.
The video showed Ripley without the knee brace she had been wearing since her surgery. That sign of progress led many fans to believe she could be close to being medically cleared.
Ripley herself was quick to set the record straight, however.
“Walking and wrestling are very different 😅 learnt how to walk last week so don’t get too excited, stay patient with me,” she said.
Ripley has been out of action since June. She suffered the knee injury in her match against Jade Cargill at Clash in Italy on May 31, and she last wrestled on June 3 at a WWE live event in Lisbon, Portugal.
In July, Ripley revealed that she had suffered a small tear in her meniscus and admitted that her recovery timeline was completely up in the air. She underwent surgery on her right knee on August 6 after initial treatment failed to fix the problem.
Ripley’s absence has also brought major changes to the SmackDown women’s division. Chelsea Green won the interim WWE Women’s Championship at SummerSlam, and WWE.com now lists her simply as WWE Women’s Champion, with the interim tag gone.
IYO SKY, Ripley’s former partner, said Wednesday that she believed Ripley had been overworking herself before the injury. SKY added that Ripley needs to take full advantage of all the time she has to recover.
As of now, there is no official timetable for Ripley’s return to the ring.