Interim champions have their place in wrestling, but not without a cost

WWE will crown an Interim Women’s Champion at SummerSlam. | (Photo: WWE) With WWE Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley sidelined with a knee injury, WWE announced Friday that a ladder match to crown an interim champion will take place at SummerSlam. The decision follows a practice long used in MMA, which took its lead from boxing. In the 1990s, the World Boxing Association introduced the concept to keep championships active when a champion couldn’t defend because of injury or illness. When the champion returned, the interim titleholder would become the mandatory challenger. Immediately, that created a built-in marquee match to determine the true champion. Historically in pro wrestling, injured champions were often stripped of their titles, and a new champion was crowned. That tradition was eventually challenged by AEW, which popularized the concept of interim champions, leading to a fiery storyline in 2022. After World Champion CM Punk was injured, Jon Moxley defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi at th