Positive update ahead of Rhea Ripley’s WWE RAW return

Rhea Ripley relinquished the WWE Women's World Championship in her last appearance for the company. The Judgment Day member has been away for 50 days, but new information shows she's getting closer to making a big return.

The Eradicator suffered a shoulder injury while brawling with current champion Liv Morgan. After several weeks away, Ripley recently confirmed she had resumed training in the gym, and it was then reported that the 27-year-old could be back in time for a match at SummerSlam in early August.

Earlier, it was revealed that Ripley and fiancé Buddy Matthews are longtime friends with Eli Theseus and Gabriel Aeros from their days on the Australian indie scene. The Aussie-Greek duo is also known as the indie tag team The Parea, and they have supported Rhea in WWE events.

Theseus took to Instagram this week to share a photo of the group hanging out at The Dark Arts Pro Wrestling & Muay Thai Gym, owned by AEW's Malakai Black and WWE's Zelina Vega. He captioned the photo with a nod to Matthews and Ripley.

"In order to achieve greatness, you must surround yourself with the greats. Buddy & Rhea [red drop emoji] #judgmentday #houseofblack #theparea #family #wrestling," Eli Theseus wrote with the photo seen below.

Matthews and Ripley have been in a relationship since at least 2022. The Australian stars have been engaged since August last year.

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WWE Legend on a potential Judgment Day shake-up

Judgment Day is still a dominant WWE faction, but the group is undergoing some growing pains following injuries to Rhea Ripley.

Damian Priest is the World Heavyweight Champion, which created conflict with Finn Balor. The legendary Jim Cornette is among the many who believe The Archer of Infamy should remain a heel and be pushed as a solo star.

He made the case on the latest Jim Cornette Experience.

"No, actually I hope they would have been putting more heel heat on him a little bit instead of having him still play with the children since Rhea's gone and Dominik is gone. Why not let Finn and JD [McDonagh] do whatever they need to do and let Damian Priest be a single top heel champion before we go turning him? Because the problem is the more over you are as a heel, the more over you are when you become a babyface or vice versa," Jim Cornette said.

Priest is scheduled to defend his championship against Drew McIntyre in the main event of Clash at the Castle: Scotland. Balor has not been booked for the June 15 PLE as of now.