Rhea Ripley Frustrated After Controversial WWE Raw Match
The Iyo Sky-Rhea Ripley Women’s World Title rematch ended in controversy while Bianca Belair was right in the middle of it.
When Rhea Ripley defended the Women’s World Title against Iyo Sky on the March 3rd episode of Raw, most people expected Ripley to retain her title. Instead, Bianca Belair was at ringside watching the match, Belair shoved Ripley during the match, causing Ripley to lose focus, and Sky capitalized to win the title.
After weeks of issues between the three women, Ripley got her Women’s World Title rematch on WWE Raw in London with Belair as the referee. Belair was nervous about it because it was her first time refereeing, but there was nothing she could do since Raw GM Adam Pearce put her in that position.
The title match in London was a competitive one when Ripley elbowed Sky across the ring and Ripley kicked Belair out of the ring by accident. A Riptide slam by Ripley on Sky followed, but when Ripley covered, there was no official to count it. The fans counted the pin for Ripley, but that’s not legal.
Belair was out of the ring, so Ripley told Belair to go into the ring to count. When Belair got into the ring to count, Sky kicked out at two because she had plenty of time to recover.
A few moments later, Ripley punched Sky repeatedly while Sky was against the ropes, so Ripley punched Belair. Sky went up top, she did a missile dropkick, Ripley moved, and Sky’s dropkick sent Belair out of the ring. A frustrated Belair was on the floor, and she said she was done and called for the bell. It was announced as a double disqualification, so Sky retained the title.
The three women got into a fight after the match as well. Ripley was able to dominate her two rivals because she hit a Riptide on Belair and a Riptide on Sky right after. The fans cheered Ripley. Ripley gave Belair a Riptide slam from the middle turnbuckle as well.
At the end of the show, Ripley held up the Women’s World Title over a fallen Sky and Belair.
Rhea Ripley Issued Warning To Her WWE Rivals
After the show, Jackie Redmond caught up to Rhea Ripley for a WWE Digital interview where Redmond asked about Ripley’s mindset.
“What’s going through my mind right now? I had the match won. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine ten…where’s Bianca Belair, huh? She’s pulling a John Cena on us cuz I can’t see her anywhere. Where is she at? She’s screwing me out of WrestleMania once again because she’s scared of me. She is scared that I’m absolutely going to destroy her…that is what happened.”
“And you know what? It’s going to continue to happen. I’m going to continue to ruin Bianca Belair until I get exactly what I want because this is absolute crap. Every single time. I’ve never beaten Iyo before and she knows that, so she implements herself into the match so I can lose once again at her hands, are you kidding me?”
Redmond asked Ripley if she could share what the message was when Ripley said something to Belair and Sky. Redmond asked Ripley what that was.
“What was that message? It was a warning, Jackie. WrestleMania, it’s not out of my grasp yet. A warning.”
It has been reported previously that WWE is planning to do a Sky-Belair-Ripley triple threat match at WrestleMania 41, but it’s not official yet.
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