In the past couple of editions of WWE Raw, a rift had been seen between the members of Judgment Day. Since winning the Money in the Bank contract, Priest & Balor had failed to be on the same page.
However, the journey of Judgment Day didn’t initiate with Finn Balor at the beginning rather a Hall of Famer was the one to create the faction with Rhea Ripley and Damian Priest. That HOFer was none other than Edge. But in a tricky turn of events he was betrayed by his own faction members as Finn joined hands with Rhea and Damian. Despite Betraying Rhea still appreciates Edge as a mentor.
Rhea Ripley discusses Edge support in “Judgment Day” run
After getting into the main roster following a dominant run in NXT, Rhea Ripley aka The Eradicator found herself in an interesting spot in the later spring and summer of 2022 when she officially joined Edge and Damian Priest in The Judgement Day. Sure, she’d already had a successful run as the RAW Women’s Champion.
But Rhea was like many other female WWE Superstars before “The Rated-R Superstar” reached out and took her in the upper-middle card below the champs and legacy performers like Becky Lynch, Bianca Belair, Ronda Rousey, and Charlotte Flair.
Though The Judgment Day didn’t initially work out as The R-Rated superstar intended and didn’t really make an impact until Dominik Mysterio joined the group and became the most hated man by the crowd, in the months proceeding, it’s hard to deny that the faction hasn’t become one of the best team in all of WWE, and Ripley as a performer was worthy of dethroning Flair as the SmackDown Women’s Champion in WrestleMania 39.
Discussing her in-ring success since joining Judgement Day, Ripley shouted out the members of The Judgement Day, past and present, for bringing her career to new heights in an interview with Rosenberg Radio.
“I’ve definitely learned a lot being in The Judgment Day,” Rhea Ripley said via Wrestling News. “The Judgment Day, it just works. I feel like we’ve all grown individually within the group as well, which has been really, really cool to see. At the start when it was me, Priest, and Edge, I feel like I learned a lot about myself and my own confidence when being in the ring with them boys, especially learning from someone like Edge. He’s a legend in his business. I loved him growing up. He was one of my favorites. I cried when he retired. So knowing that I get to go out there and stand in the ring with him and back him up, and he has my back as well, it was really, really cool.”
She also added, “It brought me to this other side of the business where like, I do get to be in the ring with the boys and I do get to be around them and listen to how they talk and how they do things. It was a different learning curve for me, which was really fun. ”
The faction turned on Edge a few weeks after the inception
In 2002, due to a surprising turn of events, Finn Balor had taken over as the leader of ‘The Judgment Day‘ after Damian Priest and Rhea Ripley turned on Edge during the June 2022 first week episode of Monday Night Raw. The Irish Captor was initially brought to the ring by Edge after being announced as the newest member of the faction, but Priest blindsided the Hall of Famer and set off a brutal beatdown.
Balor had competed alongside AJ Styles and Liv Morgan in a 6-person tag match against The Judgment Day at the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view 2022. Edge pinned down Balor after The Eradicator caused a distraction. There was no indication after the match that Balor would turn heel and join the faction.
He explained during the segment on Raw that he contacted the three of them at some point and expressed that joining forces would be the best course for his future. Somehow, he managed to broker a deal with Priest and Ripley behind Edge’s back. Edge was unaware of the fact that he was going to get betrayed by his faction members.
Do you think Edge will ever come back to Judgement Day? Let us know your pitch on this topic in the comment section below.
