WrestleMania 37: Rhea Ripley Defeats Asuka to Become WWE Raw Women’s Champion

Rhea Ripley defeated Asuka via a Riptide to become Raw Women’s Champion on Sunday during WrestleMania 37 Night Two. “The Empress” seemed to have the advantage for most of the bout, but “The Nightmare” was able to dodge one of her running kicks and hit her finisher for the three count. The win helps redeem Ripley from her WrestleMania debut last year, where she lost the NXT Women’s Championship to Charlotte Flair.

“The Queen” stuck around on the Black and Yellow Brand for a few months as champion, but dropped to to Io Shirai over the summer without ever taking a pinfall (or allowing Ripley to get revenge for her loss). Ripley then arrived as a member of the Monday Night Raw roster on March 22 and promptly challenged “The Empress” to a title match at WrestleMania.

Fans were surprised when Flair was not added to the match too, and Ripley openly admitted in interviews that she expected Flair to somehow get involved.

“Yeah, I was expecting something like that to happen, but it hasn’t,” Ripley told WrestleTalk leading up to the match. “I hope that everything in Charlotte’s life is doing great. I hope that she’s menatlly good and physically good. I don’t really know what’s going on with all of that, but I am very excited to step in the ring with Asuka. If Charlotte got added to the match, like I wouldn’t complain. I think it would still be an amazing match, and it would be a lot of fun and hopefully I could get some payback for last year.”

Check out the full results from WrestleMania 37 Night Two below:

• Randy Orton def. The Fiend
• WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships: Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler def. Natalya & Tamina
• Kevin Owens def. Sami Zayn
• United States Championship: Sheamus def. Riddle
• Intercontinental Championship: Apollo Crews def. Big E (Nigerian Drum Fight)
• Raw Women’s Championship: Rhea Ripley def. Asuka
• WWE Universal Championship: Roman Reigns vs. Edge vs. Daniel Bryan