9 Ups And 4 Downs From WWE Raw (Feb 3)

2. Not Convinced… Yet

Rating the potential Charlotte Flair versus Rhea Ripley match is a tough one. Is the 10-time women’s champ heading to NXT to challenge upstart champion Ripley a positive, or is it a negative?

Although a fan of Ripley, it’s hard to shake a feeling that this might be too much too fast for her. And that’s not a fair statement to make, but consider: Rhea just ascended to the NXT mountaintop seven weeks ago. She didn’t even show up on NXT until late August, so unless you watched NXT UK, you might be unfamiliar with her. And if you don’t watch NXT (and there are a decent number of Raw viewers who don’t), you’d only know her from the Survivor Series build-up and PPV.

Additionally, her match at Worlds Collide was a disappointment, and while that’s not a reason by itself, it’s a reminder that she’s 23, and setbacks are bound to happen.

There’s just a gut feeling that Ripley is still an unknown to much of the WWE fanbase, still green and still trying to prove herself – and now she’s being thrust into a spotlight match at WrestleMania against Flair, WWE’s prized female asset.

Kudos to WWE for striking while the iron is hot with Ripley and for being bold enough to try something, but the company’s track record with handling wrestlers correctly is spotty at best, hence the initial – and very tentative – down. There is clearly potential here for this to be turned into a positive depending on how the storyline progresses.