3 Ups & 7 Downs From WWE Raw After WrestleMania 39 (3 April - Review)

by Scott Carlson

1. Sowing The Seeds For An Epic Showdown

Bianca Belair
WWE.com

WWE rarely does slow-burn matches well. It requires long-term planning, which is something that WWE fails at regularly.

So while seeing Bianca Belair and Rhea Ripley come face-to-face with their respective world titles in tow was impressive enough, it was what they said and how they set the table that really was noteworthy.

Ripley interrupted Belair and said that the EST was the luckiest woman on the roster because Rhea chose to use her Royal Rumble victory to challenge Charlotte Flair for the SmackDown Women’s Championship rather than vie for Bianca’s Raw title. Ripley promised to get back to Belair someday.

This unleashed Belair, who plainly said that Ripley is the one who made the choice to avoid her, and that “one day when you’re ready,” Rhea can get in the ring with her to see who’s the best.

It was a great teaser of what could easily be next year’s WrestleMania main event between the future of the women’s division. Many (this writer included) thought it was a mistake for Ripley to challenge Flair instead of Belair, but this one segment – and the Mania matches – made you believe it was the right call, punting this mega-match to later.

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Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.