One WWE Match You MUST Watch From Every Year 1984-2024

3. 2021 - Rhea Ripley Vs. Charlotte Flair, Money In The Bank

Dean Ambrose Bray Wyatt
WWE.com

Charlotte Flair yet again defeated Rhea Ripley when the two met at Money In The Bank 2021, with memories still lingering of their last significant singles match playing out to the silence of the Performance Center at WrestleMania 36. Better those than the abysmal promos the pair cut on each other in the dying days of the ThunderDome to build it up.

As they'd again show at WrestleMania 39 in an even more hard-hitting affair, Ripley and Flair were made for each other physically. 'The Nightmare' has often worked in the monster role, but Flair oddly downplays this all-too-often. Never against Ripley, and this Godzilla/King Kong energy was exactly what the first full live PLE crowd in a year and a half wanted from their return to the venues.

With the burden of bad acting lifted, 'The Queen' graced her subjects by shooting them a middle finger in the first seconds and the gnarly energy never let up from there. As meaty chops and forearms gave way to exhausted closing stretches that ripped at the hearts of fans as much as they ripped the worn muscles of the women themselves, the two logged an entry lost to time that will age incredibly, incredibly well. They worked bigger and weirder stages, but needed this wholly unique one to thread their two more famous matches together. 

 
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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 7 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 30 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz", Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 50,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett