Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from the WWE Universe.

Unveiling of U.S. Title a Surprise to Women's Division

SmackDown general manager Nick Aldis announced Friday the addition of a United States Championship for the women's division.

WWE fans weren't the only ones for whom the news came as a surprise. Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp reported Saturday that "the women on WWE's roster didn't know the WWE United States Title announcement was coming until the day of, and aren't sure how the first champion will be determined."

Aldis specified the belt "will not be awarded" or "handed over" but didn't provide any details beyond that.

Some sort of tournament is the most logical route. That's often how WWE determines a new champion or settles on a singles match to figure out who gets to claim the gold.

The plan has presumably already been sketched out by the company's creative team, though you'd think that outline would've been presented to the talent well in advance of unveiling the championship belt.

WWE Aiming for Ripley Return by WrestleMania

Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com (via Ringside News' Subhojeet Mukherjee) reported WWE is hopeful that Rhea Ripley will be back in action in time for WrestleMania 41 next April in Las Vegas.

WWE announced in October that Ripley will be sidelined indefinitely because of a fractured right orbital socket. At the time, it was tough to know whether the injury was genuine or part of a storyline since a backstage attack by Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez was presented as the source of the injury.

The injury is in fact real and will require a lengthy recovery period.

Ripley's rivalry with Morgan appears to be far from over. Beating Morgan at Bad Blood didn't bring a ton of closure since it came by disqualification, and the addition of Rodriguez provided a new wrinkle to the feud.

Now, that will have to be put on the back burner.

Having Ripley for WrestleMania would at least allow for her and Morgan to have the right stage to bring their long narrative to a satisfactory conclusion.

That still leaves the small matter of what to do with Morgan, though. The Raw women's division feels like it's in a holding pattern now for the next few months.

Fanatics High on Jey Uso's Merch Sales

The WWE Universe has long had a voice, albeit a small one, in choosing which stars got pushed and how they were presented. When it comes to Jey Uso, it's abundantly clear he's considered somebody in that upper echelon on the active roster.

He reportedly was the top seller at WWE Shop last month, and Fightful Select (via Mukherjee) reported an anonymous source at Fanatics has been "putting over" the former member of The Bloodline.

As the prolonged unraveling of the original Bloodline faction happened, plenty of fans wondered whether it was all setting the stage for Uso to take center stage. His loss to Roman Reigns at SummerSlam pretty much put that idea to bed.

But the numbers speak for themselves. The Bloodline story undoubtedly helped to elevate Uso into a tier he hadn't occupied before.

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