Bayley Vows To Beat Rhea Ripley At WWE WrestleMania 40
This past Saturday at the 2024 WWE Royal Rumble, Bayley entered the titular match at number three before outlasting everyone else to emerge victorious. With her Damage CTRL partner IYO SKY currently holding the WWE Women's Championship, Bayley has said that she intends to challenge Rhea Ripley for the Women's World Championship. In the aftermath of her victory, Bayley had a brief back-and-forth with Ripley on X, teasing what kind of match might take place at WWE WrestleMania 40.
"I beat [Rhea Ripley's] record, now I'm ready to beat her at WrestleMania XL," Bayley wrote. The record Bayley was referring to was the amount of time a woman has spent in a Royal Rumble match, with Bayley surpassing Ripley's record on Saturday.
After Ripley replied to Bayley's post, suggesting an Iron Woman match between the two, Bayley responded affirmatively, stating that she was "1-0 in that match." Additionally, Bayley noted that it was the first women's PLE main event, referencing her match against Sasha Banks at WWE NXT Takeover: Respect in 2015.
While Bayley's intentions seem clear at the moment, it's too early to say for certain that the match will be taking place. From a storytelling perspective, a feud between the two Damage CTRL members has a lot of potential, and things haven't exactly seemed rosy between Bayley and the rest of the faction as of late.
If the match with Ripley does take place, it is certainly a bout with strong star power. The two have faced off a few times in multi-women matches, including a 2022 Triple Threat that Bayley won. However, in their only one-on-one bout, on an episode of "WWE Raw" last March, Ripley walked away with the win.