Chelsea Green confirms broken orbital after Aug. 7 SmackDown tag match; report says injury occurred in-ring

Chelsea Green, the newly crowned Interim WWE Women’s Champion, sustained an injury during the August 7 SummerSlam fallout episode of SmackDown while teaming with Women’s United States Champion Tiffany Stratton in a match for the Women’s Tag Team titles. Green and Stratton lost to Women’s Tag Team Champions Fatal Influence (Fallon Henley and Lainey Reid).

The defeat was followed by a post-match ambush from Nia Jax and Lash Legend in which Jax displayed Green’s Interim title. WWE had named an interim Women’s Champion at SummerSlam after reigning champion Rhea Ripley had been sidelined since Clash in Italy with a knee injury; Ripley recently underwent surgery and is likely out of action.

Wrestling Observer reporter Bryan Alvarez relayed that Green was hurt during the SmackDown tag match. “Chelsea Green was injured during the match on Smackdown last night. We don’t know the exact injury at this point but hopefully she won’t be out of action too long,” Alvarez wrote.

Green took to her Instagram to confirm the nature of the injury, saying she suffered a broken orbital bone around her right eye. She added, “I have no idea what that means for me. Usually, you guys have seen me, like, play into every single injury, but this feels different. Obviously, this feels very different. It feels frustrating. I’m upset. I feel, like, if I didn’t have bad luck, I would have no luck at all.”

Per Alvarez’s report, the injury occurred during the Women’s Tag Team title match itself, which means the subsequent attack by Nia Jax and Lash Legend was not the cause. Green had won the interim title at SummerSlam and had reportedly left the ladder match uninjured, making this setback occur only a few days into her title reign.

Green closed her Instagram update by saying she needs time to recover and will monitor the situation. “So, I just need to take a little bit more time to process and to heal from the head trauma that is going on right now. We’ll see what happens. We’re just going to take it day by day.”