Rhea Ripley and major WWE RAW star set for SmackDown appearance

Rhea Ripley and a major WWE RAW star have been spotted ahead of tonight's edition of SmackDown. Tonight's show will air live from Albany, New York, and will feature two matches in the "Last Time is Now" tournament to determine John Cena's last opponent at Saturday Night's Main Event next month.

The Kabuki Warriors (Asuka and Kairi Sane) defeated Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair to become the new Women's Tag Team Champions this past Monday night on RAW. Lash Legend and Nia Jax interfered in the match, and The Kabuki Warriors capitalized on the distraction for the victory.

After the match, Ripley and IYO SKY rushed to the ring to help Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair. It was later announced that the two sides would be competing in the Women's WarGames match at Survivor Series 2025 later this month, with two more stars to be added to the bout ahead of the PLE.

WWE took to Instagram before tonight's episode of SmackDown to share that Rhea Ripley and IYO SKY were in town for tonight's show. You can check out the video in the post below.

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"It’s WarGames season... 👀 @iyo_sky and @rhearipley_wwe are in the house TONIGHT for #SmackDown!"

LA Knight will be squaring off against a mystery star, and The Miz will be facing Jey Uso tonight in the "Last Time is Now" tournament. B-Fab is also scheduled to battle WWE Women's Champion Jade Cargill in a non-title match tonight on SmackDown.

Ex-WWE employee highlights issue with Rhea Ripley

Wrestling legend Vince Russo recently highlighted an issue with Rhea Ripley and many other stars on the roster.

Speaking on Sportskeeda Wrestling's Writing with Russo show, Russo suggested that Ripley did not have any layers to her character on television. He noted that the issue applied to Damian Priest and many other performers in the company as well.

"Who is Rhea Ripley? Who is Damian Priest? That is across the board. There are no layers to these characters. That's the beautiful thing - when characters have layers, you put them together and you can tell the best story. If everybody is just a wrestler, you're getting wrestling. That's it!"

It will be interesting to see what the company has planned for The Eradicator and IYO SKY tonight on SmackDown.

Edited by Robert Lentini