10 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About Rhea Ripley
5. She Challenged Charlotte Flair In 2020, Not The Other Way Around
Long before the reality of the situation would show itself up, there was a modicum of excitement to be found from 2020 Royal Rumble winner Charlotte Flair electing to battle for the NXT Championship rather than the Raw or SmackDown belts she'd been feuding over for years.
It was transparent war-time stuff, of course. WWE saw a main roster "in" to try and boost the ailing fortunes of the black-and-gold brand, but the story was at least a brand new one. Flair had helped establish the prestigious strap over Rhea Ripley's shoulder, and now she wanted it back.
Only, that's not quite how it played out.
Making clear her intentions to challenge a new Champion she pigeonholed as something of an upstart, Flair raised the ire of Ripley, who instead laid it all on the line first. This was gutsy, cool, and well in keeping with the beat-em-all babyface NXT had diligently built up over the preceding months. It's something the company have completely ignored in the 2021 vintage too, perhaps because of how it was all so rapidly flushed away...