Only 45 days later, Rhea Ripley was supposed to defend the WWE Women’s World Championship at the biggest stage of Wrestlemania 41 in Las Vegas. In a shocking turn of events, she is no longer the reigning champion after dropping the title on the latest episode of Monday Night Raw and she’s none to blame for the loss but herself.
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, MAMI was focused on Belair in an argument that led to her downfall.
In a post-match interview on WWE.com and social media, Rhea Ripley sat down backstage with WWE correspondent Jackie Redmond, and she offered an emotional response on the struggles after the unexpected title loss just days ahead of Wrestlemania 41.
In the conversation, Rhea Ripley had a rundown of things that she dealt with throughout last year en route to the top of the roster again by capturing the women’s world title in January of this year. She faced similar circumstances with Liv Morgan and The Judgement Day but this time she’s mad at not recognizing that ‘friends are not real’ and that she should’ve kept an eye on the prize at any cost.
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Rhea Ripley feels isolated upon devastating title loss on Raw
The former champion also spoke about both IYO and Bianca having similar journeys to their arrival at NXT. Belair, however, is an opponent that she had thought of facing at WrestleMania because of their history on NXT. At this point, Rhea Ripley admitted to feeling lonely after being thrown out of Judgement Day and Damian Priest moving to SmackDown.
“To see Bianca go out there and be a little cheerleader for Iyo Sky when I thought that we were friends and we respected each other— that hit hard. We’ve literally been growing up on each side, on each brand, and just taking over,” continued Rhea Ripley.
“And now, everything that I wanted and everything that I worked for, it’s all taken away. And it’s all because I’m just so stupid. I’m so stupid, I’m so stupid.”
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Following Raw, the current booking for Wrestlemania 41 is IYO SKY defending her newly won title against the Elimination Chamber match winner Bianca Belair. However, it also seems logical that Ripley, being a top WWE Raw Superstar will find her way back into the title picture, causing a triple threat match to go down for the championship at ‘Mania.
