After a whirlwind set of actions followed in the headliner segment of this week’s WWE Raw, IYO SKY pulled off a massive upset by clinching the WWE Women’s World Championship off the grasp of Rhea Ripley. With that move, a major change has also been made to the Wrestlemania 41 lineup with SKY heading into the show as the reigning champion.
In the presence of the Elimination Chamber 2025 match winner Bianca Belair at ringside, IYO SKY defeated Rhea Ripley (c) to win the Women’s World Championship in the main event match of the March 3 episode of WWE Raw. In the finishing sequence of the match, Ripley was focused on Belair in an argument that led to her downfall in the match.
SKY took every chance possible to win the title on WWE Raw and at one point in the match, she even adopted the moves of her absent Damage CTRL team-mates’ moves, that’s a Dakota Kai-pendant Kaio Kick followed by Kairi Sane’s InSane elbow for a near-fall. SKY even applied the Asuka Lock until Ripley reached the ropes to break the hold.
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Moving forward in the match on WWE Raw, an Over the Moonsault followed from SKY but it drew another close near-fall, with Ripley putting her foot on the ropes at the very last moment. Ripley fought back but she was distracted by Belair’s cheering for her opponent. Ripley took issue with that and confronted Belair before pushing her. Belair almost caused a disqualification trying to hit back Ripley but the referee Jessika Carr got between them.
Ripley then returned to her title match on WWE Raw and tended to finish things off with a super Riptide from the top rope, but she paused to gesture to Belair for meeting her at Wrestlemania. SKY reversed that finisher with a hurricanrana from up there and landed with the second Over The Moonsault in the middle of the ring, for the pinfall win over the championship.
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Rhea Ripley won the women’s world title from Liv Morgan on the debut episode of WWE Raw on Netflix on January 6. She spent 56 days with the title before dropping it to SKY who’d now defend it against Belair in just 46 days at Wrestlemania 41.