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The 2020 Royal Rumble was a great event that saw Drew McIntyre win the men’s Royal Rumble match while Charlotte Flair won the women’s Royal Rumble match.
While this will be McIntyre’s first shot at a major Championship in the company, The Queen is entitled to pick her opponent for her umpteenth top Championship shot.
Just like every other Royal Rumble winner, Flair is spoilt for choice as we have three incredible Women’s Champions in WWE in the form of Bayley, Becky Lynch, and Rhea Ripley.
However, we’ve seen the tides change in recent weeks as Ripley has been at the forefront of pushing Flair to cash in her WrestleMania title shot opportunity against her.
With that in mind, we will look at the 5 signs that seem to suggest Charlotte Flair will accept Rhea Ripley’s challenge for a WrestleMania match for the NXT Championship.
#5 Rise of NXT
NXT has been on the rise since the past year. With the brand signing a television deal, we’ve seen more and more NXT Superstars come at par with the rest of the WWE roster.
This has allowed the lines between NXT and the main roster to blur, and WWE’s finest athlete Finn Balor has even made the jump back to the Black and Gold brand.
Over the past several months, we’ve seen Superstars such as Seth Rollins, AJ Styles, and Kevin Owens hop on over to NXT, which has opened up a new range of possibilities of the brand and for the company as a whole.
With so much going on in NXT, and major Superstars taking interest in going back to the brand to compete at the highest level once again, Rhea Ripley’s challenge to Charlotte Flair could be a real sign of us watching The Queen jump back to the Black and Gold brand to go after the only active singles title she hasn’t won multiple times.
Flair could play a major role in building NXT to stand at par with RAW and SmackDown for years to come.
#4 The Queen running out of competitors
Charlotte Flair has been the prominent woman in WWE for half a decade now. With ten Championships to her name, she has done everything possible on RAW and SmackDown in the process.
For several years, we’ve watched Flair have repeated feuds with Becky Lynch, Bayley, Natalya, and Asuka to keep the flow of the show going.
As of the writing of this article, Bayley holds the SmackDown Women’s Championship which she first won in May 2019 after cashing in her Money in the Bank contract right after Flair won the title from Becky Lynch. While Flair defeated Bayley for the title at Hell in a Cell, Bayley once again regained it on the following episode of SmackDown.
On RAW, Becky Lynch holds the RAW Women’s Championship which she won at WrestleMania 35 after she defeated Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey in a triple threat match.
With The Queen’s rivalry with Lynch and Bayley in mind, fans want to watch Flair battle against newer and different competitors.
Rhea Ripley is a great new prospect who could give Flair an equal fight as she has already pinned her once.
WWE pushing Ripley into the storyline after Royal Rumble seems to show that the creatives are following what the fans are looking for.
#3 Other Champions have challengers
Picking up from the previous point, it seems like the other two top Champions of the company are already busy in rivalries.
SmackDown’s Bayley recently saw the return of former friend Naomi who wanted to enter the SmackDown Women’s Championship picture. However, Carmella seems to have taken the first spot after the Royal Rumble after winning the No.1 contender’s match.
Fans are also hoping and expecting to watch Bayley defend the title against Sasha Banks at the Show of Shows which seems to be a likely possibility if Banks recovers in time for the event.
Becky Lynch, on the other hand, just got out of a rivalry with Asuka. While we expected the RAW Women’s Champion to build towards her next feud soon, NXT’s Shayna Baszler arrived on RAW this week to make a statement and get their rivalry started very quickly.
With that, it can safely be said that both the RAW and SmackDown Women’s Champions are already building up towards their matches for WrestleMania, and Rhea Ripley is the only Women’s Champion looking for a challenge.
This is a sign that she could be the one Flair decides to chase in her quest to once again win a Championship.
#2 Their appearances on RAW and NXT
One of the best things fans have been treated to is the appearance of Charlotte Flair and Rhea Ripley on brands other than their own.
After the Royal Rumble, Charlotte Flair wasn’t sure who she’d like to face at WrestleMania 36 as she has defeated everyone on RAW and SmackDown. This brought out Rhea Ripley on RAW, who reminded Flair that she holds the NXT Championship and The Queen has never defeated her. Instead, Ripley has pinned Flair during the buildup to Survivor Series.
While Flair did not respond to The Nightmare’s challenge on RAW immediately, she decided to appear on NXT last week to respond to Ripley.
While she wanted to come face to face with Ripley, she was also faced with Ripley’s next challenger on NXT, Bianca Belair. The two NXT Superstars teamed up to deliver a reverse powerbomb on Flair.
This week, Ripley again appeared on RAW to seek Flair’s reply after she defeated Sarah Logan in a quick match.
With both Superstars appearing on each other’s brands, it seems like WWE is building up the storyline between these two women for an ultimate clash between them sooner than later.
#1 WWE building Rhea Ripley
No one has been built by WWE as much as Rhea Ripley over the past four months. The Nightmare emerged onto NXT after a successful stint with NXT UK and immediately got in contention for the NXT Championship. While the dominating Shayna Baszler held the title, Ripley didn’t take long to dethrone the longest reigning NXT Champion.
Baszler was a force in NXT and she even went on to defeat the RAW Women’s Champion Becky Lynch and SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley in a triple threat match at Survivor Series.
Since her victory, Ripley has defended her title against Toni Storm and walked over to RAW to challenge the Women’s Royal Rumble winner herself. With such a big build, it’ll be criminal not to include Ripley in the WrestleMania 36 card at a time when NXT and NXT Superstars are on a rise.
WWE giving Ripley so much spotlight and a chance to come out at such a young age and challenge the most decorated female Superstar of our time is a sign that the creatives want this match to happen.
