4 WWE Women’s Wrestling Takeaways: SmackDown Ruins Christmas

Credit: WWE.com

Rhea Ripley Continues To Dominate

The amazing Rhea Ripley once again defended her NXT UK Women’s Championship this week, this time against indie darling Deonna Purrazzo. The chemistry between these two is undeniable and the energy between the stars in the ring and the fans in the audience reminded me why the Mae Young Classic has been so fun to watch these past couple of years.

Deonna Purrazzo should probably already be a main roster star, so the fact that she’s getting this opportunity is really cool. Unfortunately for her, Rhea Ripley once again came out on top, further establishing her presence as the most intimidating female Superstar to come through the system in a long while.

It has been announced that NXT UK’s first TakeOver event in Blackpool will play host to a title match between Ripley and the 2019 Mae Young Classic winner Toni Storm, and I am super excited about this. These are two of my favorite rising stars right now and I legitimately have no idea who is going to come out of Blackpool with the title.

I want Rhea Ripley to have a nice, long and successful stay in NXT UK if that’s what WWE feels would be best for her. However, if she were to be called up to the main roster tomorrow I wouldn’t complain because of the unique traits she could bring with her. Sometimes Ripley’s presence reminds me of Bull Nakano and I’d love to see her get the chance to become WWE’s first properly utilized female “monster” of the modern era.

So, what’s the final tally on the Christmas loot we got from WWE? A great showing from the women of NXT and NXT UK, some hard work from the Raw women’s division but a failure on the writers’ parts to follow through on any substantial storylines for them, and an episode of SmackDown that treated the female Superstars like they were Divas circa 2010. I know this was Christmas week, but from the looks of things WWE’s much ballyhooed fresh start wasted no time getting stuck in the chimney.