WWE Women's World Champion Rhea Ripley has been forced to vacate her title after suffering a legitimate injury in a backstage brawl.
Aussie Ripley, who had held the championship for over a year, revealed the heartbreaking injury news on Monday Night Raw.
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She's been forced to surrender the title, with WWE confirming later in the show that a new champion will be crowned next week.
Reports have since emerged that a 'freak accident' during the previous week's episode of the red brand show caused the injury to the star's right arm.
Fresh off her victory against Becky Lynch at WrestleMania, she was proudly strutting around backstage when she was attacked as part of a storyline by on-screen rival Liv Morgan.
Morgan began the attack by launching a steel chair into the side of Ripley's head, before throwing her against a wall.
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Fightful Select in the US confirmed it was the latter spot which caused the damage, with Ripley's injury said to have become apparent almost immediately.
Their report noted: "....word had emerged shortly after the segment within WWE that Ripley was injured, and as far back as last Wednesday there was internal discussion that she may need to vacate the title.
"Early indications were that the situation was a freak accident, and happened when Ripley went into the walls during the backstage segment. However, there were two incidents of that."
Ripley emerged on Raw this week to confirm her injury, saying she'd been 'put on the bench' as a result of the attack.
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"This championship, this means the most to me in my entire life," she explained to the live crowd.
"And that's why this is so painful."
Ripley then placed her championship in the middle of the ring as a symbolic surrendering, before vowing to return and exact revenge on Morgan and whoever may be holding her title when Ripley makes it back.
Morgan then appeared to continue the storyline aspect of the situation, looking delighted at having put the former champ out of action.
Nonetheless, it was confirmed by Fightful that there's no actual backstage animosity towards her.
They added: "Morgan is playing it up on social media, but we're told there's no heat on her for the situation and was not blamed by Ripley or WWE."
The devastating injury comes at the worst possible time for the Judgement Day member.
Conquering Lynch convincingly at WrestleMania a little over a week ago represented one of the most memorable moments of her career, and continued a title reign that was showing no signs of halting.
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She'd snatched the championship at the previous year's WrestleMania after downing legend Charlotte Fair to continue a meteoric rise through WWE's ranks.
Back in February, she enjoyed a dream homecoming to Australia for WWE's Elimination Chamber: Perth event, where she saw off the challenge of Nia Jax in the main event in front of almost 53,000 fans.
WWE has yet to confirm the exact length of Ripley's absence from in-ring action, but company chief Paul 'Triple H' Levesque posted a tribute to the grappler on X after her appearance on Raw.
He said: "Absolutely no doubt in my mind that [Ripley] will come back tougher, stronger and more dominant than ever. Thank you, Rhea, for a reign that the entire WWE Universe can be proud of."
