Charlotte Flair made a stunning appearance at this past week's NXT TakeOver: Portland, where she confirmed that she would face Rhea Ripley for the NXT Women's Championship at WrestleMania 36.
Triple H, in the post-NXT TakeOver: Portland media call, revealed that Vince McMahon's decision to have Flair go after Ripley was "shocking". The Game explained why the WWE Chairman made the decision and hyped up the match between the two.
"To be honest, it was shocking to me when it was first mentioned to me. I believe that this was just a decision from Vince's part on understanding the other stories for the women. To me, you have opportunities where you look in a moment in time and ask is Charlotte going after Bayley and Sasha Banks [on SmackDown], does she come after Becky Lynch [on Raw].
You've seen that before and we're looking into something fresh and you see that with Shayna Baszler going after Becky Lynch and you see that in different ways on SmackDown with where they're going. So this was a way for Charlotte Flair needing to be in that big, epic role. I think it really had nothing more to do with that. It's good storytelling and that's what the goal is here, good storytelling across the board." (H/T Fightful)
Charlotte Flair won the Women's Royal Rumble match last month, which guaranteed a title shot. Instead of challenging RAW Women's Champion Becky Lynch or SmackDown Women's Champion Bayley, Flair chose Rhea Ripley, the current NXT Women's Champion.
This will be the first time that the winner of the Royal Rumble will face an NXT Champion.