WWE Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley is currently scheduled to defend her title against Raquel Rodriguez at Payback this Saturday. Throughout her dominant title reign since WrestleMania 39, not many women have really stood up to Ripley and provided as much of a fight as Raquel Rodriguez has in the past few weeks. Wrestling legend Bill Apter is one of the few who believe that Rodriguez might be one of the few women in WWE who have the potential to dethrone The Eradicator of Judgement Day.
Rhea Ripley became the Women’s Champion back at WrestleMania 39 Night One when she dethroned Charlotte Flair and became the face of the Women’s division. Not to mention, she also became the first-ever Women’s Grand Slam Champion at the April Extravaganza. Since then, Ripley’s popularity soared and she quickly became one of the most popular and dominant female superstars. She also destroyed pretty much every competitor in her way and is now about to face the biggest obstacle yet in her title reign, Raquel Rodriguez.
WWE veteran talks on Rhea Ripley vs. Raquel Rodriguez matchup
Although Rhea Ripley did not get to defend her title at SummerSlam or Money In The Bank, she will now put it on the line against Raquel Rodriguez at Payback this Saturday. On Monday Night RAW this week, Rodriquez got the upper hand on Ripley. In fact, she is probably the only female superstar who got the better of The Eradicator in an encounter. That being said, she’s heading into their championship match with plenty of momentum.
On the recent episode of Sportskeeda’s UnSKripted, Wrestling veteran Bill Apter talked about how Raquel Rodriguez has “the fire” to possibly beat Rhea Ripley in their match at Payback. According to Apter, no woman has ever before “womanhandled” Ripley in the way Rodriguez did on RAW this week. However, he would still like to see Ripley continue to reign supreme at the top of the women’s division.
“She’s got a good chance of it because I’m going to go into kayfabe; she’s got the fire to beat Rhea Ripley. I have never seen Ripley being womanhandled like that before. There’s a possibility of that. But I don’t really wanna see it. I want to see Rhea Ripley be undefeated,” said Bill Apter.
Rhea Ripley and Raquel Rodriguez feud explained
The animosity between Rhea Ripley and Raquel Rodriguez began back in July when The Eradicator cost Rodriguez and Liv Morgan the Women’s Tag Team Championships. To add insult to injury, she also injured Rodriguez’s knee, which put her out of action for some time. She later returned with crutches and then proceeded to attack Ripley after throwing them at her. Since then, tensions between the two have been at an all-time high.
This week on Monday Night RAW, Raquel Rodriguez engaged in a brawl against Rhea Ripley ahead of their match at Payback. Rodriguez ended up getting the upper hand and beat down the Women’s Champion. This is probably the first time that The Eradicator has faced someone her size.
Although it looks like Ripley has finally met her match in Raquel Rodriguez, she might come out on top in this match as well. Her title reign so far has been really impressive. Tune in on Saturday to catch the highly-anticipated match between the two superstars.
