Three years earlier, Rhea Ripley appeared predestined for success, having simply dismissed Shayna Baszler of the NXT Women’s Championship and being on the winning side of the 5-on-5-on-5 Women’s Survivor Series Triple Threat Elimination match. The then-21-year-old Australian wrestler made herself a location among the leading bold of the gold and black brand name and had actually won the regard of fans and other skills on the lineup. With momentum on her side, Ripley took a trip to Monday Night Raw and challenged the foolproof Hall of Famer, Charlotte Flair, for a match at WrestleMania 36. Ripley wasn’t simply putting her recently won champion on the line however likewise the goodwill she made after years of grinding on NXT.
While she would not understand it then, this would eventually be the start of the young wrestler’s failure.
Inside a spooky empty WWE Performance Center without any phenomenon, pageantry, or greatness most fans pertain to get out of the “greatest occasion of live home entertainment,” Ripley would tap out to Flair’s Figure-Eight Leglock submission and lose her champion to the currently multi-time world champ. The loss drained pipes any momentum the young wrestler handled to construct and left her stranded in a sea of unpredictability. Regardless of landing on the primary lineup and beating Asuka for the Raw Women’s Championship a year later on at WrestleMania 37, Ripley had a hard time to regain the magic she had throughout her fight with Baszler on NXT. That is till she began socializing with a little group called Judgement Day.