Rhea Ripley Dominates The 2023 Royal Rumble
The Judgment Day has reason to celebrate following the 2023 Royal Rumble with Rhea Ripley booking her place at WrestleMania 39.
Rhea Ripley entered the women’s Royal Rumble match as the favourite with many believing she was set for a career highlight after spending much of the year developing her character and being less active in the ring as part of The Judgment Day.
In 2021, Rhea Ripley made it to the final two in the Rumble match but was ultimately eliminated by the match winner Bianca Belair but in the Alamodome, the Eradicator of The Judgment Day went one better.
However, the Rumble match wasn’t Ripley’s first action of the night as she got involved in a brawl with the rest of The Judgment Day and Edge after Damian Priest and Finn Balor eliminated the WWE Hall of Famer. Ripley was then caught out by Beth Phoenix gaining a measure of revenge and dropping her with a spear.
Ripley entered the Royal Rumble as the number one entrant just as GUNTHER did in the men’s match earlier in the night before he finished as runner-up to Cody Rhodes but not before setting his own incredible record.
The Australian star eliminated relatively few of her fellow competitors – only – but she did eliminate the returning Chelsea Green in record time while spending much of the match on the sidelines before the match came down to Ripley and Liv Morgan – who entered at number two. Ripley was left dangling from the ropes but caught Morgan with a head scissors to take her to the floor.
Ripley is the fourth person in history to win the Royal Rumble from the number one position and the first woman to do so. Both Ripley and Morgan set a joint record for the longest time in a women’s Rumble match at one hour, one minute and three seconds.
With this win, Rhea Ripley could now have big decisions to make in her future as she could choose to challenge Bianca Belair – who retained her Raw Women’s Title against Alexa Bliss – or challenge Charlotte Flair for the SmackDown Women’s Championship at WrestleMania 39.