The current Women’s World Champion and former Women’s Tag Team Champion have had their fair share of matches together back in NXT UK. Now, WWE is heading to Scotland for the Clash at the Castle event in June. A perfect place for the Scottish-born Niven and Ripley to renew an old rivalry.
“Why not? I don’t know if you know me this, but Rhea and myself had some absolute bangers back in the day. I think it’s time to run it back, but this announcement was very, very satisfying for me because the people of Scotland have deserved this for such a long time. Without the British boom, it’s my belief that there probably wouldn’t have been an NXT UK, and Scotland was a massive part of that boom. Scotland was a huge part of that boom. Most of the people that I’ve met by chance here this week are Scottish. There’s such a huge fanbase in Scotland, and they deserve this. So I’m very happy. I hope that I’m there for them in that ring, and I hope they’ll be cheering for me,” she told Gorilla Position.
Niven recently returned from a hand injury and still is with her tag team partner Chelsea Green. They lost against Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair on Friday’s SmackDown. They will be facing Katana Chance and Kayden Carter on the April 15 Raw.
WWE Superstars will once again grace the Family Feud set.
For the women it will be Team Belair as Bianca Belair leads the team with Zelina Vega, Michin, Sonya Deville, and Jade Cargill. The opposite team will be Team Montez featuring Montez For, Angelo Dawkins, Bobby Lashley, Austin Theory, and LA Knight.
Indi Hartwell and Candice LeRae will once again take on Maxxine Dupri and Ivy Nile this Monday on April 15’s Raw. This will be their third encounter in the ring as each team has a win each. The last came when Dupri pinned Hartwell in an upset victory, just a couple of weeks ago.
LeRae turned heel about a month ago when she berated Dupri during their first encounter. Since then, LeRae has been picking up wins, but Hartwell hasn’t been on board with this new side of LeRae.
This online hot air reminds me that words are wind… but these blow like fightin’ words.
Anna Jay isn’t too happy with the current state of the AEW women’s division, but she is a fast fan of AZM.
AZM made an appearance on the April 12 episode of AEW Rampage. First, Anna Jay was sharing her frustrations of Toni Storm, Mariah May, and Mona Shirakawa just going around kissing and drinking champagne. Jay says she is the only one taking this division seriously.
AZM popped in and sent Storm a message by calling her the number one stupid and blowing her a kiss. She will face Storm on Saturday’s episode of Collision.
TBS Champion Julia Hart was in action on Rampage with a victory over Leyla Hirsch.
AZM was also in a match on April 12 for NJPW’s Windy City Riot event. She faced the STRONG Women’s Champion Stephanie Vaquer in a losing effort. Alex Windsor stepped up to challenge Vaquer next.
Spurred on by a strong and vocal crowd in Chicago, AZM gave CMLL’s @Steph_Vaquer everything she could handle.
Stephanie Vaquer successfully defended #njpwSTRONG gold for the first time against AZM at Windy City Riot- but was met by Alex Windsor with a challenge for Resurgence!#njriot report:https://t.co/E2dlwYB81J
Damage CTRL looks different over how it was when they first debuted in SummerSlam 2022 as a trio. Since then, Asuka and Kairi Sane joined the stable and ousted the former leader Bayley. The Role Model has defeated SKY at this year’s WrestleMania XL where she became the new WWE Women’s Champion.
Ahead of WrestleMania, SKY and Dakota Kai sat down with Ring the Belle’s DS Shin. Shin mentioned to them about how many people want to see a Triple Threat between SKY, Sane, and Asuka. While that match will, without a doubt, be incredible, SKY had another one in mind. An OG3 Damage CTRL match with SKY vs. Bayley vs. Kai.
Both Vix Crow (Alicia Fox) and Tenille Dashwood made in-ring returns at the HER event in Australia for the OPW promotion.
First, Vix return in a big way as she faced Mickie James. The match resulted in James going for the Mick-DDT but a counter and a kiss from Vix threw James off course.
Welcome back @VIX_CROW? You absolutely shine inside the ring and we missed you in there. Congratulations on the successful return match! pic.twitter.com/QsfEIheTrd
This was Vix’s first singles match since 2019. As for Tenille Dashwood, she had her first match since being released by WWE in September. She won against Jessica Troy.
OPW Women’s Title #1 Contendership The Victoria Classic Six Pack Challenge Match -Tarlee defeats Aysha and Caity Luxe and Charli Evans and Eleaine Hope and Lena Kross
OPW Women’s Title Match – Erika Reid (c) defeats LizzyEvo
Jody Threat def. Steph de Lander
OPW Women’s Tag Team Title Match – Inaugural – The Backslide Girlz def. PPK
TNA Knockouts World Title Match –Jordynne Grace (c) def. DELTA
The Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley will have a lot to discuss this Monday on Raw. Last week on the Raw after WrestleMania, Ripley was viciously attack by Liv Morgan with a steel chair.
According to the official Raw preview on the WWE website:
Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley will address the brutal backstage attack levied by Liv Morgan on the most recent episode of Monday Night Raw.
Morgan laid out Mami in brutal fashion, leaving her down in a crumpled heap and forcing the champion to have to address the situation.
The history between Ripley and Morgan goes back years to when they were tag team partners turned enemies, and now they’ll add a new chapter on Monday Night Raw at 8/7 C on USA.
On SmackDown, Niven made her return from injury and the duo lost to Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill. An upset Green and Niven ran into Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn backstage after their loss in a WWE Exclusive. Green was saying how they lost because she is basic a Hollywood Starlit and keeps having to be the focus on all brands.
Niven holds back Green who gets upset over Fyre and Dawn after a few words were exchanged. As Fyre and Dawn exit, Green continues to be upset because she feels that both Adam Pearce and Nick Aldis are colluding against her. As a result, Aldis walks up and lets the team know that he just spoke with Pearce and they will be facing Katana Chance and Kayden Carter.
In a separate WWE Exclusive, Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair celebrate their victory. They say they just gel together and compare themselves to peanut butter and jelly. They call the win “light work” and have tag team gold on their mind.
Tonight was the first time we saw the ladies of Team Blue since WrestleMania XL. Now that the big show has come and gone, we are now on the starting path to France: the home of the Eiffel Tower, the land of baguettes, and the site of next month’s Premium Live Event, Backlash.
We had our first sightings of women early in the show as we saw Bayley and Zelina Vega (alongside the LWO) arriving to the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan, where this week’s episode of Friday Night SmackDown took place.
B-Fab accompanied Bobby Lashley to a Number 1 Contender’s Triple Threat match against LA Knight and Santos Escobar. Elektra Lopez attempted to distract Lashley’s Pride stablemate Angelo Dawkins, but ended up getting a big boot from B-Fab for her troubles. It was the man without a valet in LA Knight who ended up winning the triple threat match and punching his ticket to potentially facing Cody Rhodes for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship.
Kicking off the second hour of the show, Bayley made her way out with her newly acquired WWE Women’s Championship on her waist. The crowd chants for her, and she expresses how proud she is of being the WWE Women’s Champion. While she’s had her fair share of gold, this current reign of hers is special and different to her, not because she defeated IYO SKY nor because of the new era the company is in but because this represents the most talented locker room she’s ever been a part of, as well as the fans who were always by her side over the years.
Bayley wants to give an opportunity to someone but before she can name the woman, Tiffany Stratton comes out, clad with a Cher Horowitz-inspired attire. She thinks it was rude for her to not be given an opportunity to be on the WrestleMania card and accepts what she believed was an open challenge from the champ. Awkwardly introducing herself to Tiffany, Bayley clarifies and says that she was not offering an open challenge, but wanted to give an opportunity to none other than Naomi; the “Buff Barbie” doesn’t take well to the mention of her name.
It’s now Naomi’s turn to enter the fray and Tiffany is quick to point out that she has already beaten her in singles competition. The Girl with the Glow bites back and reminds Ms. Stratton that she has earned all of her accomplishments in her WWE career. Before she can accept Bayley’s offer, she decides to go through Daddy’s Little Rich Girl first in a match where the winner would face Bayley for the Women’s Championship.
The resulting match started during the commercial break but as the show returned, we could see Bayley watching the match and supporting Naomi. The match was fairly back and forth, with both competitors trying to get one up over on the other. Naomi would win in the end via jackknife pin.
Shhhh… it’s Chelsea… AND PIPER! The woman formerly known as Doudrop (on second thought, let’s not remember that name) made her return to WWE TV after being out since February with a broken hand.
In a backstage vignette, Chelsea and Piper were in the office speaking with SmackDown general manager Nick Aldis, trying to convince Aldis into drafting them to the blue brand in this year’s upcoming Draft. Mickie’s hubby promises to find them two tag team opponents for tonight. Those opponents? Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair. While Piper put in a competitive effort, Chelsea Green wasn’t able to do so as just like Monday on Raw, quick work was made of her by Jade.
AEW’s Battle of the Belts X goes live this Saturday after Collision and a women’s bout has been added.
Athena will be defending the ROH Women’s World Title against Red Velvet. After Athena’s big victory against Hikaru Shida at Supercard of Honor she is sitting at 489 days as champion.
For Collision it was already confirmed that Toni Storm will be facing AZM. And on tonight’s Rampage, Julia Hart takes on Leyla Hirsch.
Saturday #AEWBOTB Highland Heights, KY TOMORROW on TNT
After a huge #ROHSupercard win, Athena arrives in AEW at Battle of the Belts to defend the title vs Red Velvet, after her amazing run in the TV Title Tournament! pic.twitter.com/GqPtWfzFxa
Natalya had been on NXT for the past few weeks where she has helped Karmen Petrovic and defeated Lola Vice. Since then, she became the first championship opponent to Roxanne Perez after Perez won the NXT Women’s Championship at Stand & Deliver.
Perez made her first ever appearance on Raw and defeated Indi Hartwell but ran into Natalya backstage. They had a championship match the next night on NXT. She lost after an interference by Vice which les to Perez retaining.
“I jumped at the opportunity to go to NXT. Some of the greatest moments of my career were at NXT, like my match against Charlotte Flair in 2014. NXT is also primetime television. Anytime you’re on the USA Network and it’s during that timeslot, it’s primetime TV and we’re one of the highest rated shows on USA. When I was asked (to go to NXT), it was a huge honor for me. I really wanted to go to NXT to work with more women. I probably have the world record for working with the most women in WWE history.
I really wanted to work with women who are hungry and love this as much as I do like Roxanne Perez. I met her in the parking lot outside of a live event for a WWE show when she was a teenager, she was like 13. She came up to me, it’s on tape because we were filming Total Divas, we shared this on social media, she came up to me and said, ‘I want to be a WWE superstar like you. How do I become that?’ Fast forward to all these years later and I’m wrestling her and she’s the NXT Women’s Champion. We had a beautiful match. She was such a fantastic opponent and everything I had hoped for as an opponent. Our chemistry was amazing. I loved every second in there with her. It was magical. It’s why I love what I do in WWE and why I jumped at the opportunity to go to NXT,” she said. (Fightful)
What have you thought of Natalya’s recent return to NXT?
It was confirmed recently that Miyu Yamashita was coming back to TNA to participate in its next set of tapings. Now, it was confirmed that the current TNA Knockouts World Champion Jordynne Grace will be her opponent.
Yamashita was last seen on a TNA show over a year ago in a win against Killer Kelly. The tapings take place on April 21, one day after TNA’s next pay-per-view Rebellion. At Rebellion, Grace defends her Knockouts Title against Steph De Lander.
We are ten days away as TNA sets its sights towards Rebellion. This week on TNA Impact! features a contract signing between Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace and Steph De Lander, as they are set to face for the title at the pay-per-view.
Before the contract signing, we see Ash By Elegance backstage confronting Director of Authority Santino Marella, as George Iceman vouches for her opportunity at the Knockouts title.
The contract signing gets underway as De Lander makes her way to the ring along with Matt Cardona, and the Juggernaut arrives shortly after. Cardona immediately touts De Lander as the “Queen of the Deathmatch,” “the Powerhouse Predator,” and the “next Knockouts Champion.”
Grace isn’t impressed, stating that she’s earned every one of her accolades and history-making moments. De Lander responds by saying that Grace’s head might not be in the game as she’s too focused on bodybuilding and her Royal Rumble appearance. But, Grace’s top priority is to represent TNA as its Knockouts champion. Whether she beats her, Cardona, or Cardona’s wife, she states she’ll retain her title and beat De Lander and her “bitch” all over again.
The two go for a handshake, but the respect is cut short and chaos erupts. Unfortunately for Grace, Cardona gets involved and De Lander chokeslams Grace through the table.
Shortly, we see Masha Slamovich confronted by Alisha Edwards and The System trying to convince her again to become tag team partners. Edwards doesn’t understand a word she says, but seems hopeful they can become contenders for the tag titles.
Later on in the night, we see Decay approach Marella as they invoke their rematch clause for the Knockouts World tag team championships. Marella makes the match official, and Spitfire now has challengers at Countdown to Rebellion.
Per a report received by PWInsider, TBS Champion Julia Hart may have suffered an injury at the Rampage tapings to air this Friday. Hart may have hurt her shoulder last night while wrestling Leyla Hirsch in an Open House Rules match.
Alicia Fox will be returning to the squared circle l for the HER event where she will be facing Mickie James on April 12. The two have not shared the ring in a one-on-one match since 2009. As for Fox, who is now going by Vix Crow, has not been in the ring besides a couple of WWE Royal Rumble appearances since 2019.
?VIX CROW returns to wrestling tomorrow! @VIX_CROW and @MickieJames join Ring the Belle to discuss Foxxy’s big return match, falling back in love with wrestling, and creating second all women’s wrestling event HER this time in Australia: https://t.co/KZ100cdMnApic.twitter.com/rish0J6FtG
Ahead of their match, Fox and James talk with DS Shin of Ring the Belle. They discuss the return of Fox and what made her fall back in love with wrestling.
We’re just a short few weeks from AEW Dynasty and ahead of the event, things are heating up this week on Dynamite.
Early in tonight’s show, we see TBS Champion Julia Hart come face-to-face with TNT Champion Adam Copeland fresh off his successful title defense against Penta El Zero Miedo. All in a sneak ploy, for Brody King to take Copeland out. This is short-lived as Willow Nightingale, No.1 Contender for the TBS Championship, makes the save.
The House of Black wants to take care of Adam Copeland before #AEWDynasty!
We soon see Hart in a dramatic vignette responding to Nightingale, vowing that she’ll never touch “her crown” and that “the House always wins.” Nightingale is set to face Hart for the TBS Championship at Dynasty.
Per the request of AEW Women’s World Champion “Timeless” Toni Storm held a “Charleston Championship Champagne Toast” in honor of No. 1 contender for her title, Thunder Rosa. This toast barely gets started, as she immediately splashes Rosa with her glass of bubbly and continues to batter her, all the while ruining her face paint. Deonna Purazzo comes out to assist Rosa, despite Rosa not too pleased with the help due to their rocky history.
Per the request of the #AEW World Women's Champion "Timeless" Toni Storm, it's time for the Charleston Championship Champagne Toast!
Mariah May shortly makes her entrance as she is scheduled to take on Anna Jay, and gets a burst of energy via Storm. May is hot off her weekend after a short reunion with her former Club Venus members at Stardom and getting a win off of Momo Kohgo at ROH’s Supercard of Honor.
Mariah May is certainly energized for her match with Anna Jay!
Action is back and forth between May and Jay and they eventually find themselves outside the ring trading chops. May seemingly takes control of Jay throughout the match, as Jay continues to fight back. Unfortunately for Jay, May’s experience edge is too much for her, and rolls her up for the 1-2-3. Post-match, Jay does not take this too lightly and she fades out May with the Queen Slayer.
In comes a surprise as Stardom’s Mina Shirakawa, arrives to avenge her former Rose Gold tag team partner. Shirakawa calls for a champagne toast of her own, and gives May another “energizer” for the night.
Mina Shirakawa makes the save for her former partner, Mariah May!
To cap off the night, Mercedes Moné is being interviewed and talks about her future plans and her potential competition. Moné is set to face the winner of the TBS championship bout at Dynasty and will subsequently make her in-ring debut at Double or Nothing. As she is about to answer her next question about who she wants to face, the lights turn off and is audibly attacked in the darkness. We see Moné lying on the floor with the assailant unknown.
"I'm a history maker, I'm a game changer" – Mercedes Moné
As Dynasty quickly approaches, tonight’s Dynamite will have an appearance by Mercedes Moné. She went on record last week to say that she will be facing the winner of the TBS Title match at Dynasty. That will be the champion Julia Hart defending against Willow Nightingale. The winner will go on to face Moné at Double or Nothing in May.
After her successful title defense at Stand & Deliver, the new NXT Women’s Championship Roxanne Perez opened the show. Claiming her victory served justice, Perez went on to boast about her ring savvy by targeting Lyra’s arm while feeling absolutely no remorse.
To drive this new pompous heel persona even further, Perez claimed the only way she’ll be dethroned is upon getting drafted and having to relinquish the belt to make her main roster debut. The former champion Lyra Valkyria interrupted and challenged Roxanne for a championship rematch. Perez taunted the former champion only for Tatum Paxley to interrupt offering to take Lyra’s place. After an eerily intimate exchange with Tatum gazing into the ex-champions eyes, Paxley pulled the switch and ignited their rivalry.
Oh but we’re just getting started!! Because my girl NXT Nattie came out with her hair half braided and a chip on her shoulder. Feeling herself with the new do, The Total Divas veteran issued a challenge to the newly crowned champion which Perez immediately turned down only for the NXT General Manager Ava to immediately make official because despite her delusion, Perez isn’t in charge of booking the show, Ava is!
Kelani Jordan & Fallon Henley were seen backstage next getting an honorary award from Chase U University. Thea jumps into the segment excitedly with former “friend” Jacy Jayne and the rest of the mean girls club Kiana & Izzy quickly on her tail.
Jacy reveals the reason those calendars were necessary was to bail Chase U out of debt. Jayne revealed Chase placed a wager on Thea’s match that ended up costing the university after her mentor forfeited the match for Hail by throwing in the towel. Thea sat at her desk in disbelief but when confirmed by Andrew Chase to be true, stormed out of the segment much to the delight of Jayne.
Immediately we cut to tag team action where Kiana & Izzy take on Fallon & Kelani. The match goes into frenzied action with both teams having back and forth exchanges until Kiana James eventually gets the better of Jordan and cuts the match in half. From this point Kiana continues to dominate with impressive offense. Once Fallon gets the hot tag, the tide would momentarily turn but would prove not to be enough to overcome the heel faction with Izzy & Kiana picking up the victory.
NXT Women’s Championship match Roxanne vs. Natalya is up next!
The challenger is out first to a big babyface pop! We love NXT for that, (until they decided to do dueling chants later on in the match, fickle fickle). The champ follows to a chorus of boos (and then cheers). Oh I am excited for this one! Roxanne and Nattie immediately get to work, exchanging technical holds with ease and precision. Roxanne introduces her five fingers to Nattie’s face and the vet answer’s back with a hard slap of her own!
After we return from the commercial, Nattie snaps in a clean surfboard submission. Perez eventually gets the upper hand after a shove into the steel steps. The heel champion lays into the veteran and impressively has an answer for all of the challenger’s offense. Great chemistry displayed by these two as to be expected and you can really see Nattie is in her element here.
After exchanging submission holds, Natalya eventually gets in the sharp shooter and drags the champion to the middle of the ring before Roxane powers her way to the bottom rope. The two performers tumble out of the ring when out of nowhere Lola Vice runs in and attacks Nattie from behind! (Boooo!) Perez capitalizes and hits the Pop Rocks for the win! Great, and enjoyable match!
Backstage segment with Lola Vice claiming she’s taking her own opportunities and is gunning for gold. But guess what Lola? NATTIE AIN’T GONNA TAKE THAT ATTACK!! A backstage altercation ensues where you can visibly make out Natalya mouthing bxtch over and over again.
Recap of Ava announcing the Women’s North American Championship
Meta-Four had a brief segment backstage furthering Dijak and Noam’s story, Jakara and Lash looked great.
Jaida Parker is out next representing OTM and is set for action against Brinlee Reece. Honestly, not super familiar with either of these performers so not sure what to expect heading into this bout! Luckily both women have personality in spades so I’m already drawn in right out the gate.
This match was a great showcase of characters with Parker playing up her no nonsense heel swagger and natural dominance against Brinley’s homage to Lisa Frank. The bubblegum pop powerhouse has some impressive offense but lights out when Jaida hits the Hip Check for the win! Fun, enjoyable match. Jaida really has an effortless charisma about her.
Final women’s segment of the night sees Arianna Grace talking to Sol Ruca backstage discussing the new North American Championship. Lola Vice would join the conversation once again with tunnel on achieving gold. Good character building segment.
Author’s Notes:
All around, I had a great time watching NXT last night if you can’t tell by the results. Entertaining TV from all the women involved and while I wanted my girl Nattie to pick up the win, I understand wanting to keep it on Perez as she finds her footing as a heel. I like Roxanne so no issues with that but she definitely needs established babyfaces to work against to help grow into this turn as being a heel doesn’t come as naturally as her babyface work. That’s not a dig either, Perez has a high ceiling and management backing her so expectations are understandable. My personal take is she’s trying to show range and complexity in this heel persona but it’s coming across, to me, as confusion. Happy to give her time though because Roxanne is definitely a talent to invest in. Sound off in the comments and see ya’ll next week!
The fall out from NXT’s Stand & Deliver is here and we have a new NXT Women’s Champion – Roxanne Perez. She defeated Lyra Valkyria on Saturday. Below you will see what is planned for tonight.
Roxanne Perez promo to open show to include Lyra Valkyria, Tatum Paxley, and Natalya
Kiana James & Izzi Dame vs. Fallon Henly & Kelani Jordan
NXT Women’s Title Match – Roxanne Perez (c) vs. Natalya
TNA has announced some breaking news. Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling’s (TJPW) Miyu Yamashita will be returning to the promotion at their April 21 tapings. This will be the day after the Rebellion pay-per-view event.
BREAKING: @miyu_tjp returns to TNA on April 21 as #TNAiMPACT comes to the Palms in Las Vegas.
Yamashita is a four-time Princess of Princess Champion for TJPW as well as a former tag champion with Maki Itoh. The one appearance Yamashita had with TNA was in March of 2023 where she defeated Killer Kelly.
Yamashita has also competed in both AEW and ROH and has had championship matches against Thunder Rosa and Athena.
Giulia made her exit from STARDOM at the end of March and since then she has already showed why she is a hot free agent.
Since the she has popped up at an indie show in Japan, but what has really caught eye is her appearance at NXT’s Stand & Deliver. She was features in the front row with William Regal and Rossy Ogawa (STARDOM’s co-founder). Giulia was also spotted in attendance at WrestleMania XL over the weekend but was not shown on screen there.
A new report from Fightful Select has all the latest on Giulia’s status with WWE.
While asking about when fans could expect to see Giulia start with NXT, @FightfulSelect was told she could start at "any time", and remains in the US as Rossy Ogawa noted he returned to Japan alone earlier today.
— Corey Brennan Of Fightful.com (@CoreyBrennanFF) April 9, 2024
At NXT Stand And Deliver on Saturday afternoon, Giulia was shown in the same capacity as former free agents of the past on NXT programming, appearing in the crowd during the show.
Fightful Select’s Corey Brennan has learned that Giulia has agreed to join WWE officially, and will finish out her remaining dates which will include some time in Rossy Ogawa’s upcoming promotion. Giulia’s negotiations were a case of WWE offering more money than AEW, with there being more interest from WWE than All Elite Wrestling. Sean Ross Sapp has also been told that Giulia did not seek an agent during her free agency.
Sources also tell Brennan that William Regal is said to have played a key role in negotiations between WWE and Giulia, with Rossy Ogawa also proving to be an important factor in Giulia signing.
While asking about when fans could expect to see Giulia start with NXT, it is believed she could start at any time, and remains in the US as Rossy Ogawa noted he returned to Japan alone on Tuesday.
With regard to her appearance at NXT Stand And Deliver, sources tell Brennan that Giulia was rushed to her seat at ringside under a cloak and was said to have been overwhelmed by the positive reaction from the crowd.
Giulia was also in attendance for WrestleMania 40, and was backstage as well as in the crowd during the event and was notably wearing credentials that read “performer”.
Last night the Raw after Wrestlemania was palpable with excitement! The Diva-Dirt community was active and hopeful with the promise of a new era from WWE.
Our first piece of women’s related content introduced the World Women’s Champion Rhea Rhiply. Introduced by the title-less members of the Judgement Day, Mami proclaimed that this would be a new era for the successful faction while standing in the middle of the ring with the new WWE Heavyweight Champion Damien Priest.
Rhea wouldn’t have a major role in the segment but would later on get attacked backstage by Liv Morgan. Morgan made good on her word that her revenge tour was far from over by chucking a chair at Rhipley’s head. It connected in a safe, non-concussed kinda way. It was a brief interaction so hopefully the follow up next week sees Liv picking up more momentum as I do believe Morgan is a viable challenger to end Mami’s reign.
The newly crowned NXT Women’s Champion Roxanne Perez came out next in a match against Indi Hartwell with Candice LeRae at ringside. Perez started off the bout suckering Hartwell with a cheap shot after tricking Indi with a gesture of respect. The newly adapted heel personas of Perez and Candice LeRae would be the focal point throughout the match with Roxanne capitalizing on the referee being distracted after LeRae attempted interference would end up costing Indi.
Perez would be interrupted by the always perched and ready, Natalya!! Nattie greeted the new champion and informed Perez she’ll see her tomorrow night at NXT. Perez mocked the longtime veteran by informing her NXT is her show. Quick and simple stuff.
Later in the night, the General Manager of NXT Ava appeared in a backstage segment alongside Adam Pearce & Nick Aldis to be interrupted by the consistently charismatic, Chelsea Green. After a brief exchange Pearce sent Green out into the ring to get rained down on because…
A STORM IS COMING
Jade Cargill squashed Chelsea but it was worth the watch, they’re both so charismatic and it’s fun TV.
Authors Thoughts:
Not much else for the women, Rhea not having a bigger role and being overshadowed was disappointing. Her reign was a point of contention for me last year though admittedly I checked out from most of WWE’s programming amidst all the chaos within management. It’s my first week on the job though, so I’ll give Triple H the benefit of the doubt. Though it must be said, the absence of Becky Lynch was noticeable and I was a little bit hoping we’d see Stephanie and Brandi make their return to WWE TV last night as well but alas, I guess Wrestlemania was a one off.
The newly crowned and now two-time NXT Women’s Champion Roxanne Perez made a surprise debut on Raw.
Perez faced a former adversary, Indi Hartwell, and was able to pull out the win. Later in backstage, Perez ran into Natalya. Natalya told her that she would see her tomorrow at NXT and Perez responded by calling NXT her show.
In a WWE Exclusive, Perez spoke about both her first match ever on Raw and her run in with Natalya.
“I feel amazing. Honestly, I don’t really need your congratulations. We all knew that I was going to become two-time NXT Women’s Champion. We all knew that I was going to defeat Indi Hartwell, and if everybody else didn’t know, I knew, and that’s all that mattered.”
“Natalya used to be one of my heroes. I met her when I was 13 years old, and I went up to her and asked her for advice, and she was nice enough to give me some. But now I realize I don’t need Natalya. I don’t need any of my heroes, I am my own hero. If Natalya has a problem with that, she can come to my show and say it to my face.”
The yearly WWE Draft will be here in a few weeks around the same time as last year. It was officially announced on the April 8 episode of Raw. The first night will be on SmackDown, April 26 and will conclude on Raw, April 29.
Last year, all eligible women on the main roster were drafted. Alexa Bliss and Carmella who were, and still are, out on maternity leave were not picked. They may very well be back for this year’s draft. Aliyah was the only other woman not drafted but was subsequently released. Indi Hartwell, Alba Fyre, Isla Dawn, Katana Chance, Kayden Carter, and Zoey Stark were all called up from NXT.
Since last year’s draft, there have been some organic call ups to the main roster. Ivy Nile on Raw, Tiffany Stratton on SmackDown, and Elektra Lopez on SmackDown have made their place on the main roster over the past several months.
Who would you like to see where by the end of this year’s draft?
