WWE Star Added To SummerSlam 2026 Championship Match

Published: Aug 1, 2026 by Liam | Last Updated: Aug 1, 2026 by Liam

Liam has been reporting & analyzing wrestling news for over eight years, and is currently the Managing Editor at WrestleTalk.com. Immersed in wrestling for 18 years, he has over 11,000 published articles in addition to leading and overseeing WrestleTalk.com's coverage.

WWE

A WWE star has officially been added to a championship match at this weekend’s SummerSlam premium live event.

A few weeks ago, it was announced that a knee injury would keep WWE Women’s Rhea Ripley out of action through SummerSlam, unable to defend her title on the show.

In her absence, WWE confirmed there would be a five-woman ladder match to determine an Interim WWE Women’s Champion, taking place at SummerSlam.

On tonight’s SmackDown, two days before the ladder match takes place on night two of SummerSlam, the final entrant was determined.

A qualification match between Lash Legend and Giulia was won by Legend, so she joins the five-woman field to determine the Interim WWE Women’s Champion.

The other four women in the match are Charlotte Flair, Jade Cargill, Chelsea Green and Tiffany Stratton.

Cargill and Stratton have both been WWE Women’s Champion in the past, while Flair has of course been a champion many times over but has yet to hold the current version of the WWE Women’s Title.

Legend and Green haven’t been WWE Women’s Champion, but Legend has been a Tag Team Champion with Nia Jax, and Green has been Women’s United States Champion.

Cargill and Flair both qualified against Nia Jax to get into the ladder match, Green defeated Kiana James, and Stratton defeated Jacy Jayne.

Given the fact this match will be for the Interim championship, the winner will likely face Rhea Ripley to determine the ‘real’ champion when she returns – unless of course the Interim title changes hands before then.

As noted, the ladder match takes place on night two of SummerSlam, which is Sunday, August 2 and will be headlined by Roman Reigns vs Seth Rollins for the World Heavyweight Championship.

Who Will Become Interim WWE Women’s Champion

As noted, with Rhea Ripley injured as WWE Women’s Champion, it’s likely she will face the winner of the Interim title ladder match when she’s back, so that has to be considered when crowning the Interim champion at SummerSlam.

Green and Legend can probably be ruled out as not quite being at that level yet, though it would be a good way to start elevating Legend towards that level especially if she’s only holding the title until Ripley’s return.

Stratton and Cargill have been champion before so they wouldn’t be out of place, but Stratton is already US Champion so she can be ruled out, and the idea of Ripley vs Cargill isn’t exactly exciting considering they already had numerous matches against each other a few months ago – though that wouldn’t stop WWE from doing it and framing it as long term storytelling.

Ultimately, the best choice here is probably Charlotte Flair, who deserves rewarding for her great babyface work over the past year or so, and a nice crowning moment with the fans on her side for a change.

Also, Ripley vs Flair would be a better match than Ripley vs any of the other options coming out of the ladder match.

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