8 HUGE WWE Night Of Champions 2023 Predictions You Need To Know
6. Rhea Ripley (c) Vs. Natalya
Rhea Ripley should squash Natalya like a bug.
The longstanding women’s division legend occupies a strange space in WWE at present. Having tagged with half of the roster in various bereft efforts to win tag gold, she’s stepped up to Rhea Ripley to test her mettle against Raw’s best-in-class, and there’d be an okay hero’s journey story here had WWE been a*sed to tell it. But in failing to really dive into that, the creative team failed to give these two a reason to keep it competitive.
The company could be fooled into thinking a competitive back-and-forth will be a worthwhile advertisement of the Champion’s desire and violent determination, but these are stories that have been told countless times with Ripley. It’s time for her to illustrate exactly how far apart they are in the pecking order.
More than just benefitting Ripley ahead of presumably going toe-to-toe with Becky Lynch for their first real singles feud, a squash match will lend a bit of colour and levity to a loaded and narratively hefty show. With major title matches up and down the card and significant ramifications in all three components of the “Triple Main Event”, Night Of Champions could do with at least one of the Champions having a particularly spectacular night.
It realistically can’t happen with their SmackDown counterparts, but it could and should here.
Winner - Rhea Ripley