WWE has announced a tournament to find the first challenger to the newly crowned Ricochet’s Speed Championship. Ricochet became the inaugural champion at a recent taping after defeating DIY’s Johnny Gargano in the finals of the tournament, with wins over Dragon Lee and JD McDonagh as well. He now adds another notch into his belt as a WWE Superstar. The title is just another set of gold he can add to his title collection, alongside the Intercontinental Championship, United States Championship and NXT North American Championship.
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“You always remember the first to ever do it.Nobody defines “speed” like Ricochet,” WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque wrote on X, accompanied by a photo of the two. “Congratulations toย @KingRicochetย on adding another title reign to his legacy and becoming the first-ever #WWESpeed Champion.”
The announced matches include Apollo Crews going up against Ivar while New Catch Republic’s Tyler Bate will face off against Berto. The winners of those matches will head to the semi-finals. The matches begin on next week’s Speed, May 8. For those unfamiliar, Speed is a new format WWE is testing out on its social media. Superstars will compete in short five minute matches that will air across all of their social channels. Back in March it was revealed that a current WWE Superstar was reportedly helping produce some of the Speed matches — Bate’s tag team partner Pete Dunne.
Triple H recently revealed that Speed won’t just feature the men, but the women as well. “It makes for an exciting challenge for the guys. It makes for an exciting challenge for eventually what will be the women as well. So far, it’s been spectacular. The talent have really embraced this and gotten into the challenge of it. It’s been exciting for them and our fans as well.” Several female Superstars have poked fun at the Speed announcement, as for a long time, women’s matches in WWE were often five minutes or less anyway.ย
WWE has certainly come a long way since then, featuring several women’s storylines throughout its three weekly programs — Raw, SmackDown and NXT. The concept of Speed is an interesting one because it’s a great way for talent that’s not typically on television to earn good will from the fans while also showcasing what they’re made of, which is perfect for a stacked women’s division. There’s no indication whether or not that means a championship for the women will be added in the future.ย
