Royal Rumble winner Charlotte Flair’s job of picking a Champion to challenge was made easier by NXT Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley when she came out to challenge The Queen to a match at WrestleMania.
Not only did this provide Flair with a fresh direction, but it also gave the young new Champion a chance to have a match at WrestleMania - as no other NXT title will be defended at the event.
Flair has done it all and won it all in WWE, and she has shown interest in returning to her roots and capturing the title that began her rise in WWE. Ripley, on the other hand, wants to prove that she’s better than everyone else as she defeated the dominant Shayna Baszler for the title and wants to defeat The Queen of WWE to prove that she’s the best of the best.
As the two will face each other at WrestleMania 36, we will look at the 5 potential endings to their matchup and what it could lead to in the future.
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#5 The match ends in a disqualification
Charlotte Flair and Rhea Ripley will meet in the ring one-on-one for the first time. The two women will battle for the NXT Women’s Championship, and the stakes will be much higher for the young Ripley than the veteran Flair.
Both women will try to give it their absolute best in this match, and the winner will get the right to lead the NXT women’s division into the future.
With such high stakes, the match can go either way as Flair is undoubtedly one of the best female athletes in the world.
However, there is a possibility that WWE is planning to pull off the ultimate swerve in this match and give fans something to look forward to in the coming months. We could see one of the two women get desperate in the match and use some weapons, drawing a disqualification.
#4 Charlotte Flair cheats to win
We all know that Charlotte Flair is clearly playing the heel in this match as Rhea Ripley has emerged the fan-favorite babyface on NXT.
Flair is great at playing a babyface character but she’s even better when she’s playing a heel, as she just feels more comfortable in that role. The fans love to boo her just like they do to many other Superstars, and the energy feels more natural when Flair plays with the crowd to get a negative reaction out of them.
While Flair has won several championships during her time in WWE and won even more Championship matches to defend her title on hundreds of occasions, she has not always won her matches fairly.
Keeping that in mind, this could be an excellent way for WWE to take Flair back to NXT as a Champion without having Ripley lose the title cleanly so soon. We could watch Flair use some tactics such as exposing the ring posts or using the ropes to gain an unfair advantage, only to make the rivalry even more bitter.
Flair winning the NXT Women’s Championship would increase the value of the title and the brand while allowing Ripley to come back after the title sooner than later.
#3 Rhea Ripley retains her title
Rhea Ripley has been an absolute machine in the ring since moving from NXT UK to NXT and leaving a mark during Survivor Series last year. Ripley is one of the youngest female Superstars in the company has already enjoyed an NXT United Kingdom Women’s Championship reign.
Ripley defeated the dominant Shayna Baszler to win the NXT Women’s Championship and hasn’t looked back ever since. Even though she’s only had a couple of televised title defenses against Toni Storm and Bianca Belair, it’s safe to say that the youngster is only just getting started.
With that said, it is likely that WWE is ready to invest in the new Superstar and will allow Ripley to score the biggest singles victory of her career by defeating Charlotte Flair. Ripley has some incredible moves and a devastating finisher, and that could work in her favor during the match.
Flair is the most decorated woman in all of WWE, and WWE could allow The Nightmare to defeat The Queen clean to get a huge push and become one of the few women who’ve defeat Flair.
#2 Bianca Belair interferes to begin a new rivalry
Before Rhea Ripley walked out on RAW to issue a challenge to Royal Rumble winner Charlotte Flair, she was already in a rivalry with Bianca Belair of NXT.
Belair took that as an insult and decided to continue talking down both Flair and Ripley, maintaining her spot in their rivalry while pushing her own agenda. At NXT TakeOver: Portland, Ripley defeated Belair to retain her title after a hard-fought match and turned her focus solely onto Flair.
While Ripley and Flair may be focused on one another at the moment, there is no doubt in our mind that Belair is still focused on trying to get in the NXT Women’s title picture once again by hook or by crook.
At WrestleMania 36, we could see Belair appear to interfere in the match between Ripley and Flair, and the distraction could allow Ripley to retain her title.
This would give NXT the chance to keep Ripley as the Champion for longer while forcing Flair to move to NXT to hunt down Belair for costing her the title. We could watch a feud between the two women for some time, with the winner of the rivalry ultimately progressing to another shot at the NXT Women’s Championship at a later date.
#1 Charlotte Flair defeats Rhea Ripley clean
Charlotte Flair has won every single Women’s Championship there is in the company, proving that she is the best female Superstar in the industry. The former NXT Champion has gone on to win the Divas Championship, RAW Women’s Championship, and SmackDown Women’s Championship during her career.
Rhea Ripley is still new to the mix, and even though the Australian-born Superstar has had a lot of success in WWE, she is no match for The Queen just yet.
Ripley has already pinned Flair during a match, and Flair will be looking to exact revenge on the NXT Champion. At the same time, WWE could be looking to get Flair back on NXT fulltime just like Finn Balor to increase the viewership and ratings of the brand, and we all know Flair has the star power to do that.
Therefore, we could see Flair lock Ripley in a Figure Eight and make her tap out to win the NXT Women’s Championship clean and make her way back to the Black and Gold brand for good.
Not only will this allow them to develop and even deeper rivalry with Ripley on NXT, but it will also allow her to have some very interesting feuds with other emerging women on the brand.