Report on WWE Plans for Charlotte Flair’s WrestleMania Match, Upcoming WWE NXT Appearance
Charlotte Flair won the women’s Royal Rumble match this past Sunday in Houston. Did she really “need” the win? Maybe not, but that’s what happened. On Raw last night in San Antonio, Flair did a promo talking about how she gets to challenge a Women’s Champion for “a championship” at WrestleMania.
There have been reports online about how Flair likely wasn’t going to face Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch again (Becky vs. Shayna Baszler is the rumored plan), nor would she challenge Bayley for the Smackdown Women’s Title. Bayley will likely face Lacey Evans again or perhaps Sasha Banks if one of them turns face. Maybe it will be a multi-woman match. Anyway, Flair isn’t expected to challenge for the Raw or Smackdown title.
The title that Flair is likely to challenge for at WrestleMania 36 on April 5th is the NXT Women’s Title held by Rhea Ripley. That’s according to PWInsider, who reports that Flair is scheduled to be in Orlando this Wednesday for WWE NXT at Full Sail University in Orlando. Flair is not currently advertised for NXT, but PWInsider is reporting she will be there. It was also mentioned on Wrestling Observer Radio that Flair will face Ripley at WrestleMania, so that’s two sources reporting it.
This means some of the expected matches at WrestleMania looks like this:
WWE Championship: Brock Lesnar (c) vs. Drew McIntyre – This is official already.
WWE Universal Championship: “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt (c) vs. Roman Reigns
Randy Orton vs. Edge
Raw Women’s Championship: Becky Lynch (c) vs. Shayna Baszler
NXT Women’s Championship: Rhea Ripley (c) vs. Charlotte Flair
As I said, only one match is official right now and they have over two months to get there, but those are five of the top matches expected to take place.
Analysis: I think Flair vs. Ripley should be an awesome match at WrestleMania. It does feel like a bit of a step down for Flair to be challenging for the NXT Women’s Title that she held five years ago, but it’s also a way to elevate the NXT brand by using one of last year’s WrestleMania main eventers to make people may more attention to NXT. We all know WWE is trying to elevate NXT by making it feel equal to Raw and Smackdown while also trying to beat AEW Dynamite on Wednesday nights, so perhaps the presence of Flair will help for the next couple of months.