Charlotte Flair Has An Idea As To Why She And Rhea Ripley Work Well Together
This weekend, "WWE SmackDown" Women's Champion Charlotte Flair will be defending her title against Rhea Ripley at the company's biggest event of the year, WrestleMania 39. Ripley earned the title match at this year's Royal Rumble when she won the women's Rumble match. She was also the first entrant in the match and officially called out Flair for her title challenge on the January 30 edition of "Raw." Flair recently spoke with ESPN about why she and Ripley work well in the ring together.
"It's our sizes," Flair told ESPN. "We're the same size as some of the guys. It's not that it makes us hit harder or be better, but it looks like two titans going at it."
Flair and Ripley's first WrestleMania match was at WrestleMania 36 in 2020, where then "NXT" Champion Ripley lost her title against Flair. It wouldn't be the first time Ripley would lose a title match against Flair. The next time was at the Money in the Bank 2021, where Ripley lost the "Raw" Women's Championship to her foe. Flair has been the "SmackDown" Women's Champion since she made her surprise WWE return on the December 30, 2022 edition of "SmackDown," when she defeated then-champion, Ronda Rousey.
As noted, the other women's title match that is set for WrestleMania 39 is "Raw" Women's Champion Bianca Belair versus Asuka. Belair has been the "Raw" Women's Champion for almost one year — she became the champion at last year's WrestleMania on April 2, when she defeated Becky Lynch. It no doubt will be interesting to see if or how Flair and Belair will retain their titles this weekend.