Has the Liv Morgan-Rhea Ripley Feud Gotten Stale?

WWE Women’s World Champion Liv Morgan successfully defended her title at Saturday Night’s Main Event last week. Iyo Sky, the challenger for the championship, was the first woman to challenge for the title in over two months. Morgan’s previous televised title defenses were at Bad Blood on October 5th and SummerSlam on August 3rd, where she faced Rhea Ripley both times. However, Ripley confronted Morgan following her win on Saturday, staring her down, showing that this feud isn’t over yet coined by Michael Cole saying, “She wants her championship back.” Also, Ripley confronted Morgan during a promo on Monday Night Raw, stating that Raw General Manager Adam Pearce confirmed that she is the number one contender for the championship. This begs the question: has the Morgan-Ripley feud gotten stale?

Liv Four Brutality Breakup and Ripley’s Heel Turn

Things weren’t always bad between Morgan and Ripley; they even partnered up to challenge for the Women’s Tag Team Championship at WrestleMania 38. After proving unsuccessful at WrestleMania and then on Raw two weeks later, Ripley turned on Morgan, turning heel for the first time on WWE’s main roster and joining the Judgement Day soon thereafter. At 2022’s Hell in a Cell PLE, Ripley, Edge, and Damian Priest defeated Morgan, A.J. Styles, and Finn Balor. Their feud mainly died down after that, besides the two women being the first two entrants in the 2023 Royal Rumble and lasting until the very end before Ripley inevitably won it. Following Ripley’s WrestleMania 39 win of the then-SmackDown Women’s Championship, Morgan also took home gold on the April 10th, 2023 edition of Raw by winning the Women’s Tag Team Championship with current Judgement Day member Raquel Rodriguez. The babyface tag team champs feuded with Ripley, which led to a storyline of them dropping the titles due to the Australian World Champion injuring both of them before a title match on Raw. 

Morgan’s Revenge Tour Came at Expense of Ripley’s Championship

In Morgan’s return in what was named her “Revenge Tour,” she was pushed as a major contender, finishing as the runner-up in both the Royal Rumble match and the Elimination Chamber match to determine the number one contender for the Women’s World Championship at WrestleMania XL. Following WrestleMania, Morgan took things full circle by attacking and injuring Ripley on the Raw after WrestleMania. Ripley, blaming Morgan for her injury, was forced to vacate the championship, ending her title reign at 379 days as recognized by the WWE, tying Bayley for the longest reign in history. In the battle royal for the vacant championship, Morgan again served as the runner-up, being eliminated by Becky Lynch, who was then challenged by Morgan at King and Queen of the Ring. 

“Dirty” Dom’s Antics Helped Liv Maintain Championship

Though Ripley was still sidelined at this time, the feud with her former tag team partner heated up when Morgan won her second world championship by way of interference from “Dirty” Dominik Mysterio. Not only did Mysterio inadvertently help Morgan win the title by sliding a steel chair into the ring, but he also helped her retain the belt in a steel cage match by slamming the steel door in Lynch’s face. Mysterio’s relationship with Morgan spiced things up for the time being since when Ripley returned; it poured some gasoline on the fiery rivalry. Ripley, with Mysterio in her corner, would face Morgan for the championship at SummerSlam’s opener. The two put together a great match until Morgan brought in a steel chair to finish the job on a very resilient Ripley, who tried to hit Morgan with the chair but was stopped by Mysterio. Morgan took advantage of the distracted Ripley, stunning her and then hitting the ObLIVion on the chair while the referee was distracted, retaining her title and stealing Mysterio from his “Mami” in the process.

“Going, Going, and… Still Going”

The rivalry was red-hot at this point, and they were expected to wrap things up at Bad Blood, but that’s where things went off the rails. For the match, Mysterio was locked in a cage above the ramp to prevent him from interfering, but that didn’t stop shenanigans from occurring. The finish was completely botched as a returning Rodriguez attacked Ripley in the view of the referee, resulting in a disqualification and an even more complicated storyline. Despite the messy finish, the rivalry could’ve ended right there with Morgan as champion and Ripley as a very strong babyface. That didn’t happen, unfortunately. Ripley pinned Morgan in their WarGames match that, made Ripley look unstoppable and Morgan look very weak one-on-one. It has been announced that the two pillars of Raw’s women’s division will battle again for the title on the brand’s debut on Netflix.

Disjointed Judgement Day Made Feud Boring

Their first feud was interesting since it involved the original Judgement Day, an exciting new faction at the time that was getting visceral crowd reactions. Now that they’re rebooting this rivalry, it’s not the same since Morgan is now in a far less interesting version of the Judgement Day. Balor and JD McDonagh were two of the most underwhelming Tag Team Champions in recent memory. Carlito is just there; he hasn’t had a televised singles match since September. Rodriguez was booked as the new bodyguard of the stable, but she’s coming off back-to-back losses, including one that knocked her out of contenders for the inaugural Women’s Intercontinental Championship. Morgan is now the only member of Judgement Day with a championship, which is why it seems that WWE will put the title back on their superstar and potentially the disbandment of the Judgement Day.

WWE May Want to End Morgan’s Reign

Morgan’s title reign, which will reach 226 days by the time she faces Ripley on Raw, has been scrutinized in terms of booking. Despite this being the third-longest Women’s World Championship reign of all time, people haven’t been as keen on Morgan due to her looking particularly cowardly in her defenses. Her only clean title defense was her last one against Sky, but even that one saw her opponent on the offensive for most of the match. However, that proves that she’s been doing great work as a heel since undersized wrestlers typically need to be bailed out against bigger opponents when playing a heel. Nonetheless, this on-again, off-again feud has been going on since April 2022, and it would be best served by ending on January 6th and not carrying on until WrestleMania 41.