Three candidates to take the Women’s World Championship from Rhea Ripley

As Rhea Ripley continues to reign supreme as the Women’s World Champion, there are only three candidates to take the title from her.

Since defeating Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania earlier this year, Ripley has quickly become the most dominant woman in WWE and possibly all of professional wrestling. She has surpassed 230 days as champion and shows little to no signs of slowing down.

The Women’s World Championship has been defended by Ripley six times since winning it in April. Her first defense was the following PLE at Backlash against Zelina Vega.

Following this defense, Ripley would enter a brief, yet forgettable feud with Natalya and successfully defend her title twice on WWE Night of Champions and a few weeks later on Monday Night Raw.

Her most meaningful feud so far during this title reign has been against Raquel Rodriguez. Ripley defeated Rodriguez at WWE Payback two months back in September.

She also was able to defeat her again on Monday Night Raw two nights later. The overall best match since during her reign thus far has arguably been the fatal-five-way match at WWE Crown Jewel just a few weeks ago,

She is currently slated for a title defense this Saturday at Survivor Series against Zoey Stark, which Ripley is a heavy favorite to retain. Expecting her to walk out with the belt, three candidates are the most likely to take the belt from Ripley.

Becky Lynch

Becky Lynch has had a whirlwind of 2023. She began the year amid a feud with Bayley and Damage CTRL (before the brand split) that ended with Lynch and WWE Hall of Famer Lita taking the Women’s Tag Team Championships from Iyo Sky and Dakota Kai. Before all of this happened, I had to think back to this moment when a stare-down happened on Monday Night Raw that I now believe foreshadowed something to occur in the future.

When I thought back to this moment, I instantly thought she had to be a frontrunner to eventually take the title from Rhea. I’d argue Lynch is a favorite to win the 2024 Royal Rumble and headline WrestleMania against Ripley. If she does so, she would be the first woman to be a two-time winner of the Royal Rumble. Which only adds to the accolades she has already achieved. She is in the War Games match at Survivor Series, but what is next? Long-term storytelling at its finest here.

Liv Morgan

Speaking of long-term storytelling, who better to dethrone Ripley than her former tag team partner Liv Morgan? Back in July, Ripley viciously attacked Morgan and ruined Morgan and Rodriguez’s chances at the Women’s Tag Team Championships.

We haven’t seen much of Morgan ever since that night. The two have an obvious history as former tag team partners respectively, until Ripley turned on her partner Morgan after a loss to Boss N’ Glow (Sasha Banks & Naomi) last year on Raw,

There is a ton of history between the two, and after being the final two in the last Royal Rumble, Morgan is expected to return at the next Rumble and if she does has to be an instant favorite to win. If she does, it only makes sense to choose to headline WrestleMania against her former tag team partner and go after the woman who is responsible for her time off.

Jade Cargill

It still has not been made clear which brand Jade Cargill will be on when she finally makes her WWE debut. Cargill has been teased on all brands on multiple occasions. The one brand I believe makes the least amount of sense is Smackdown. It’s already loaded with talent in the women’s division with Sky, Bianca Belair, Bayley, Flair, Asuka, and more! WWE NXT works simply because they need the firepower in all aspects due to talent making the move soon to another brand.

That leaves both NXT and Raw as a possibility for Cargill. She is already being built as a top-level superstar in the women’s division. As the most dominant woman in wrestling, Ripley would be a great challenge for Cargill. Ripley has already beaten most of the division on Raw and will need more threats for her title reign. With that being said, if this match happens, I believe it also means a much longer reign for Ripley because Cargill won’t and shouldn’t get a match of this quality until she gets a few matches and feuds under her belt.

If one of these women is due to face Ripley, it could mean the end of her title reign.