Rhea Ripley defeated Becky Lynch on Night 1 of WrestleMania 40 on Saturday to retain the Women’s World Championship.

The Eradicator hit Lynch with a pair of successive Riptides—the first onto the turnbuckle and the second in the middle of the ring—to successfully defend her title.

For several months, WWE seemingly teased a big match between Ripley and The Man, as they often encountered each other on Raw and stared each other down in an apparent effort to gauge fan interest.

Despite that, the company managed to keep them away from each other as it related to their rivalries, but that changed following Elimination Chamber in February.

After failing to win the women’s Royal Rumble match, Lynch was one of six Superstars to qualify for the women’s Elimination Chamber match. She outlasted Liv Morgan, Bianca Belair, Naomi, Tiffany Stratton and Raquel Rodriguez to earn a women’s world title match at WrestleMania.

In the main event of that premium live event, Ripley was victorious in her home country of Australia, beating Nia Jax to retain the title.

That made Ripley vs. Lynch official for WrestleMania, and they instantly set their sights on each other, engaging in a war of words on the ensuing episode of Raw.

Lynch is one of the most accomplished women in WWE history, as she entered The Show of Shows having held the Women’s Championship on six occasions. She was also in the first women’s main event in WrestleMania history, beating Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania 35.

As great as The Man is, she had not held a main roster singles title since April 2022, whereas Ripley has dominated the women’s division for the past year.

After winning the 2023 women’s Royal Rumble match, Ripley beat Flair for her title at WrestleMania 39, and she held it for over one year by the time WrestleMania 40 rolled around.

Ripley represented one of the toughest tests of Lynch’s illustrious career, and after falling short on The Grandest Stage of Them All, The Man must now go back to the drawing board to figure out how to get back to the top of the women’s division.

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