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Rhea Ripley emerged victorious from WrestleMania 39 with the SmackDown Women's Championship. She defeated arguably WWE's most prominent female wrestler, Charlotte Flair, for the gold. Freddie Prinze Jr. recently expressed his desire to see Ripley's former rival come out of retirement to for her first defense.
At Extreme Rules in October 2022, Beth Phoenix interfered in the "I Quit" match between Edge and Finn Balor on behalf of her husband. She was ultimately outnumbered by The Judgment Day and was knocked out with a Con-Chair-To by the Australian megastar. This led to all four of them wrestling in Montreal, Canada earlier this year, with the Hall of Fame couple scoring the victory.
Whilst the win was decisive, Beth Phoenix and Rhea Ripley's exchange left fans wanting for more. Throw in the fact that the bout ended with Edge taking down Balor, the women still have a story that could be explored. On his Wrestling with Freddie podcast, the former WWE writer stated:
"She's [Ripley] going to be champ for a long time. I'd love to see Beth [Phoenix] come out of retirement, the way her man [Edge] came out of retirement because she did Beth wrong at that other pay-per-view, where she was like going to basically kill her and they made Edge say, 'I quit.' That was how they beat Edge in that 'I Quit' match, she was going to Con-chair-to Beth," said Freddie Prinze Jr. "Now you get that payoff, where you let Beth come in and get one little run at the belt, she loses, of course, and you let Rhea get that win as well, and that gives you time to build up whatever babyface you want to come after her that's going to fail, ultimately." [H/T: Wrestling Inc.]
Following her win at WrestleMania 39, Beth Phoenix broke character to send a four-word message to the new SmackDown Women's Champion.
Another Hall of Famer calls out Rhea Ripley, talks WWE return
Rhea Ripley is seemingly the most wanted female wrestler in WWE currently. Even Triple H mentioned that the matriarch of Judgment Day is the Roman Reigns of the women's division.
WWE Hall of Famer Alundra Blayze (fka Madusa) revealed in an interview with PWMania earlier this year that she would love to face The Eradicator in a retirement match:
"I already called her out. And I was walking past the makeup room whenever I was there for RAW XXX and I walked by I said, “yo girl looking good.” Then I came back and stuck my head and I said, “you’d probably be a pretty good retirement match.” She’s like, “Oh my God. That’s such an honor.” [H/T: PWMania]
Meanwhile, a SmackDown star recently teased being the next challenger to Rhea Ripley's SmackDown Women's Championship.
