Rhea Ripley vs. Charlotte is the Direction To Correct Their WrestleMania Match From 2020

Rhea Ripley’s successful capturing of the Raw Women’s Championship at WrestleMania 37 was promptly followed by the return of Charlotte Flair on the following night’s edition of Raw.

Charlotte—who was on pace to challenge then-champion Asuka at WrestleMania before getting sidelined by a COVID-19 diagnosis—came back cutting a fiery promo venting about missing WrestleMania and openly shedding her “humble Charlotte” label. Later that night, a WrestleMania rematch between Asuka and Ripley ended indecisively as Charlotte attacked both women to stake her claim for the Raw Women’s Championship she has held four times thus far.

Charlotte’s return as a heel placed her back into a distinctly more fitting role as the conceited figurehead of the women’s division and a much-needed shift from the odd Lacey Evans-Ric Flair storyline she was involved in prior to being declared inactive.

While only one match has been confirmed thus far for WrestleMania Backlash, Monday’s events have planted the seed for a possible Triple Threat Match between Asuka, Rhea Ripley, and Charlotte Flair.

When running live shows goes back to being a frequent occurrence and less of a potential health risk, Asuka will be remembered as one of the most enjoyable parts of the pandemic era and someone who was able to bring significant fire and energy, even without a crowd. While her title reign suffered from a lack of credible opponents as well as consistent TV time, she had largely dominated the women’s division for the past year. Phasing Asuka out of the women’s title picture, for the time being, would allow for a fresh return to the title picture down the road.

That would leave Charlotte and Rhea Ripley to continue their rivalry from WrestleMania 36, creating an opportunity for Ripley to redeem her NXT title loss and defeat “The Queen”.

There is a credible argument for Rhea Ripley being the hottest rising star of 2019. Within the span of a month, Ripley won War Games with a 2-on-4 disadvantage, secured victory for Team NXT in the traditional Survivor Series elimination match, and ended the 400-plus day NXT Women’s Title reign of Shayna Baszler.

Being put against Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania was an opportunity for Ripley to complete her ascent and continue her hot streak, but instead inexplicably lost to Charlotte and via submission at that. Not only was the win inessential for Charlotte but the loss clearly derailed Ripley’s momentum and her run in NXT was never the same after that.

Rhea Ripley was a key addition to the Raw roster given her talent, star quality, the absence of Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch, as well as very little focus being put on building credible contenders at the time.

Coming off of a Raw Women’s Championship victory at WrestleMania after just making her debut a couple of weeks prior, this should be the time to give Ripley a lengthy run with the championship and cement her reign by defeating the woman that put an early end to her red-hot run last year.