For weeks leading into The 2024 King And Queen Of The Ring, fans were wondering what was going on with Dominik Mysterio and Liv Morgan. From brief background shots of the two alleged enemies walking together to his bandana seemingly popping out of her pocket, WWE has been dropping steady hints that the alleged enemies might not be what they seem. In fact, many have been speculating that Mysterio and Morgan are having an on-screen affair, which will come to light after Mysterio’s longtime storyline girlfriend Rhea Ripley returns from injury. We still don’t have answers, but following an appearance by the heel at this weekend’s King And Queen Of The Ring, the storyline has quickly gone from simmering to boiling over.
Let’s back up real quick and talk about how we got here. Dominik Mysterio and Rhea Ripley have been dating on-screen for years, much to the annoyance of fans. Ripley, the leader of Judgment Day in all but name, mostly orders Dom around, and even though she’s dating him, she seems to view Damian Priest as more of an equal than her boyfriend, who she mostly gives menial tasks to. Following her WrestleMania victory over Becky Lynch, she seemed poised to enter a feud with former tag team partner and longtime nemesis Liv Morgan. Unfortunately, she was hurt for real during a backstage segment with Morgan and had to forfeit her title.
That’s when these little hints about something going on between Liv and Dom started to drop. On an almost weekly basis, we’d see the two walking out of the same room in the distant background of shots, or we’d see some kind of subtle reference to them spending time together. Fans, of course, picked up on all these hints and started obsessing about them on Twitter. It was widely assumed we’d get a few more months of this before Rhea came back and this alleged affair played into her inevitable feud with Morgan, but it now looks like it’s kicking off way sooner than expected. Morgan was wrestling against Becky Lynch for The Women’s World Championship, the same belt Rhea Ripley vacated, at Saturday’s King And Queen Of The Ring when Mysterio showed up mid-match. He slid a chair into the ring, seemingly to help Becky to defeat Liv, but Liv used it and won the match, leaving fans wondering whether he screwed up or did it on purpose. I think there are three possibilities. Let’s talk them out…
Possibility 1: Liv And Dom Are Having An Affair, And He Helped Her On Purpose
This is by far the most popular option on Twitter, and it’s the most straight ahead explanation for the clues we’ve been given. It’s not a stretch to think Dominik is sick of Rhea ordering him around, nor is it a stretch to think, with his Mami gone, he’s looking for another woman to take orders from. There have been too many shots of them seemingly spending time together for there to be an innocent explanation, and he had to know Becky wasn’t going to use the chair when he slid it into the ring. She’s playing too much of a white meat babyface right now to accept help from Dominik Mysterio.
You could also easily make the case that this is the highest upside story WWE could tell when Rhea gets back. We know she’s going to have a sustained feud with Liv when she returns. The women share too much history. Once you throw in the real life injury, there is way too much storyline there to ignore, but it’s also fair to say fans aren’t going to buy Liv having any chance in winning that feud. Ripley is a generational talent who could go down as the most popular performers in the history of women’s wrestling. She’s not just going to lose a straight match to Liv Morgan, unless there’s some kind of additional storyline element, which is where Dom would come in. She could certainly lose to Morgan if he betrayed her, and it’s easy to imagine a storyline divorce between Dom and Rhea that divides The Judgment Day being given 20 to 30 minute segments a week. That would be gold.
Chances This Is Happening: 65%
Possibility 2: Dominik And Liv Are Not Having An Affair. He’s Just Incompetent
The Judgment Day has been the subject of break-up rumors since almost immediately after the stable formed. Rumors swirled that Edge wasn’t happy within the group or that maybe WWE didn’t think he was the best fit. We still don't entirely know. Eventually, he was kicked out and replaced by Finn Bálor. Later, they brought on JD McDonagh, who took months to be fully accepted by the group. Later, we got teased problems between Damian Priest and Bálor after the former won The Money In The Bank Briefcase and accidentally cost the latter a few matches against Seth Rollins.
They stuck it out through it all, however, and there’s a distinct chance that we are going to see the same thing here. Everyone obsesses over The Bloodline and rightfully so, but you could make a case that Judgment Day is one of the most successful stables in the history of WWE. Dom has more heat than any heel in the entire company, apart from at least The Rock. Whether she’s hurt or not, Rhea is the top woman in the entire division, and Damian Priest is World Heavyweight Champion. Throw in regular and relevant TV time and storylines for Finn and JD every week, and they really do run Monday Night Raw.
So, yeah, there’s a reasonable chance here that the plan is to keep Judgment Day together in the long run, and that likely means Dominik Mysterio, who is regularly depicted as incompetent, was trying to screw Liv Morgan over and messed up. Likewise, it’s possible every time he’s been shown in the background with Liv, it’s been to follow her around and torment her. Maybe he’s just really doing Judgment Day business, which in his mind is harassing her.
Chances This Is Happening: 25%
Possibility 3: Dominik Is Pretending To Befriend Liv On The Orders Of Rhea
Rhea Ripley has consistently been shown as the planner in Judgment Day. Prior to her injury, she was often speaking with Adam Pearce to arrange matches or talking to other wrestlers to forge alliances, like when Drew McIntyre joined Judgment Day for WarGames. Just because she’s out with an injury doesn’t mean she doesn’t have her pulse on what’s going on. My favorite theory is that she’s been telling Dominik Mysterio to get close to Liv. Maybe Rhea even wants Liv to have the title so when she returns, she can go after Liv and win her title back as part of the same program.
To believe Dom is cheating on Rhea, you have to believe Dom would willingly cross Rhea, and while we’ve occasionally seen little bits of tension, their relationship, while weird, has always seemed pretty stable. It’s hard to imagine he’d turn on her simply because she was away for awhile, and it’s hard to imagine she’d fall asleep at the wheel and let that happen.
This is the most unlikely of the three options, but it’s my favorite. It would keep Judgment Day together, while allowing the are-they-or-aren’t-they plotline to develop for awhile.
Chances This Is Happening: 10%
To Sum Up
Yeah, we’re all excited about the New Bloodline vs Old Bloodline storyline that’s inevitably coming. That’s going to be great, but WWE is so hot right now because it has a bunch of other stories that are cooking too. The most obvious is, of course, the one Drew McIntyre and CM Punk have going, which Damian Priest is very tied into. Right behind that, however, you’d have to go with whatever is happening here. Dominik Mysterio gets booed like few performers in the history of the sport, and there’s always intrigue related to him and Rhea. Throw in a possible cheating scandal, and fans are going to be white hot for this whenever she comes back.
I think it’s most likely he is having an affair with Liv, but people on social media act like that’s a documented fact. He’s innocent until proven guilty, and with Triple H now in charge, you should never assume you know where a storyline is going until it fully plays out.
