New SmackDown Women's Champion Crowned At WWE WrestleMania 39 Night 1

Rhea Ripley dethroned Charlotte Flair for the blue brand's top prize.

By Scott Carlson /

WWE

Rhea Ripley is your new SmackDown Women's Champion, successfully parlaying her Royal Rumble victory into a title by defeating Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania 39 Saturday night.

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The Judgment Day's Eradicator had what could be termed an instant classic with Flair as the two slowly ramped up the intensity during their semi-main match. Both women swung for the fences, both with strikes and with high-impact moves. Ripley constantly avoided Charlotte's Figure Four and kicked out of a spear and Natural Selection, while Flair kicked out of a Riptide.

It took an avalanche Riptide from Rhea to finally end Charlotte's three-month title reign and capture her second singles title on the main roster.

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For Ripley, the match was an absolute statement of how good she really is and that her work reinventing herself as a part of the Judgment Day has paid off. For Charlotte, a match of this quality was sorely needed after a string of subpar performances that had critics and fans alike wondering if something was off with the Queen.

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The intensity with which both women approached the match made you wonder if we had a WrestleMania 23 situation, where Batista and Undertaker were upset their World Heavyweight Championship match wasn't main-eventing the PPV, so they went out and killed it to make the WWE brass regret their decision.