Image: WWE
Rhea Ripley’s call-up to the WWE main roster looks to be on the horizon.
After Ripley lost a Last Woman Standing match to Raquel Gonzalez at NXT New Year’s Evil this Wednesday, Dave Meltzer reported in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the loss was to write Ripley off NXT ahead of a move to Raw or SmackDown.
“Rhea Ripley losing to Raquel Gonzalez on NXT is because Ripley is moving to either Raw or SmackDown imminently,” Meltzer wrote. “That match was to write her off the show.”
Ripley previously made appearances on main roster shows during the build to Survivor Series 2019 and in advance of her NXT Women’s Championship match against Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania 36. Ripley was also an entrant in the 2019 women’s Royal Rumble.
Ripley held the NXT Women’s Championship once during her time on the brand, winning the title from Shayna Baszler in December 2019 and losing it to Charlotte at WrestleMania 36.
PWInsider also reported on Thursday that the current belief was that Ripley was expected to be called up to the main roster following her loss to Gonzalez at New Year’s Evil.
Damian Priest, who lost to Karrion Kross at New Year’s Evil, is also set to join the WWE main roster. Meltzer wrote in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter about Priest’s expected call-up to Raw and his planned debut that was nixed from last week’s SmackDown:
Damian Priest was at one point scheduled to debut on the 1/1 SmackDown show. He was going to be put together with Owens to feud with Reigns & Uso. Owens felt the story made no sense because the pitch was for Owens to bring him in like he was his best friend backing him up, and Owens felt that Priest’s character makes no sense to Owens’ character to be a best friend. Owens apparently said that they should redo it where WWE officials book Priest as his tag team partner for his benefit because he keeps getting beaten up by Reigns & Uso and that WWE was doing it to protect him. But that didn’t work out and Reigns felt it wasn’t the time to introduce a new person and after that, it was pretty much agreed by both Reigns and Owens that it wasn’t the right time to introduce a random person to the main event mix that didn’t seem to fit. As of right now, and this could change, Priest is scheduled for the Raw roster and to debut at the end of the month.