At WrestleMania 39 Rhea Ripley overcame Charlotte Flair to become SmackDown Women’s Champion for the first time.
Heading into the show there was a great deal of speculation over whether the match would take the headline spot, or if the honour would fall to Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn vs. The Usos. In the end, it was the Undisputed Tag Team Championship match that topped night one, even though Ripley vs. Flair featured the women’s Royal Rumble winner.
Speaking during an appearance on the After The Bell podcast, Ripley reflected on the match and its spot on the card. The new SmackDown Women’s Champion said that the quality of the match proved that it should have been in the main event.
“Coming out of that match, I did feel like we stole the show. I feel we went out there and left everything we had in the ring and proved to everyone exactly why we should have been in the main event spot.
Yes, we didn’t have a good build like Sami, Owens, and the Usos; at the same time, Charlotte and I, every time we step in the ring, we bring the brutality, we bring the ferocious when we go out there and we just beat the living crap out of each other. All the praise that we got, it made me happy and made me proud that we went out there and beat the crap out of each other and loved it. It’s a weird feeling. I get it, I do get it,”
When asked whether her attitude around the match was “top this,” Ripley stated that she was “emotionally unstable” on the day of the show, but knew everything would come together by the time she walked through the curtain.
“It’s a lot how I felt going into the first women’s WarGames match. We had our WarGames shirts and it was FTMF, that was printed on the back and that was the same mentality that I had going into this WrestleMania. The day of was a complete mess to me. I was emotionally unstable, I want to say, because of the lack of sleep and everything coming full circle.
I knew that as soon as my music played and I stepped out of Gorilla and into (the arena) and all the fans staring back at me that I was going to switch on and that’s when the Rhea Ripley you see comes out and all my confidence comes rushing through my body and I’m going to go out there and do everything I can to steal the show.”
Rhea Ripley Vs. Charlotte Flair Praised As One Of The Best Women’s Matches Ever
The match between Rhea Ripley and Charlotte Flair was praised heavily as soon as it ended. Many fans hailed the clash as the best women’s WrestleMania match of all time, while Dutch Mantell said the hard-hitting bout was the best women’s match he’d ever seen.
H/t to Fightful