It's Time For Rhea Ripley to Become the Roman Reigns of WWE's Women's Division
August 26, 2023
Not to cramp John Cena's style or anything, but Rhea Ripley's time is now.
Now, with the 2023 edition of Payback on approach and Ripley's Judgment Day all over the promotional posters and such, is the perfect time to begin the catapult to Roman Reigns status.
Some might give an eye-roll at the idea, understandably. But there are few budding Superstars in pro wrestling flirting with the ability to transcend the sport itself and become household names in pop culture (seriously, pop open Tik-Tok for five seconds on a new account and Ripley is bound to show up).
And Payback currently lacks a certain amount of punch for a PLE. Seth Rollins will fight Shinsuke Nakamura for a title. Ripley has the title match against Raquel Rodriguez. Fans are finally getting Becky Lynch-Trish Stratus, but it's been dragged out to the point of getting a muted reception.
In many ways, Payback has the vibe of SummerSlam lite—unless it's a vehicle for Ripley.
Few would argue against the idea that Ripley is the best thing running in Judgement Day. Dominik Mysterio comes close, but he's not there yet, nor does he possibly hold up all that well without Ripley right now.
Which is the point. Payback might be the time to have Ripley split off from Judgement Day in some fashion, playing into that beef between Finn Balor and Damian Priest over the latter's Money in the Bank briefcase and the happenings around it.
Maybe that could mean Ripley takes Mysterio with her on the way out, forming a bit of a secondary stable that keeps them in the heel zone. It would certainly be interesting, for example, to see Ripley take on this sort of cult-like figure within WWE who other heels flock to and join. The first choice might be right there at Payback with Nakamura too, never mind the chance to help revive someone like Austin Theory.
But rumblings and buzz from not too long ago suggested that internally, WWE views Judgment Day as a sort of successor to the Bloodline around Reigns. That sort of frames it as the next big long-running storyline centered around a critical piece. That would be Ripley.
Looking at the calendar, this sort of stable shakeup that elevates Ripley even further comes at the perfect time, too. Fans have entered that purgatory situation before the build to the next WrestleMania can start in earnest. So with the Bloodline on a mini-break of sorts, why not have Ripley lead a team of heels at Survivor Series to take on past allies and otherwise?
It's a rather large onion from a long-term development standpoint too. Position Ripley as the break-away piece and maybe, in the next six months to a year, an eventual split with Dominik that leads to his really becoming the main event player and title holder we all know he's going to be.
Similar story for the women's division, where WWE continues to struggle. Not in the talent sense—not by a long shot. But the company seems to have major issues with figuring out how to handle veterans like Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch and even Bayley while also giving up-and-coming talents room to breathe and shine. Ripley serving as a Reigns-styled final boss of sorts who will eventually lose and provide career-altering momentum for someone else seems too obvious to mess up.
And hey, maybe WWE is well ahead of everyone on this front. One of the surefire complaints with Ripley right now is how little she actually wrestles. But maybe that's a sign. It is, after all, one of the bigger complaints with Reigns' title run too. Maybe she's already viewed on that level and that's how things will continue to play out in a measured manner.
We can't undersell the idea of Ripley having actual matches against men too, when the time comes and it makes sense storyline-wise. Those feel inevitable, especially if WWE follows this proposed track of Payback planting the seeds for and/or kickoff a stable shakeup.
More matches would be nice, but as Bloodline has repeatedly shown, big storyline payoffs are much better. That faction's tale has felt like a bit of a proof of concept for WWE as far as committing to long-form storytelling, too.
Organically, Ripley is already one of the biggest things in pro wrestling and beginning to transcend it. WWE rewarding a 26-year-old Superstar with the Reigns treatment is a no-brainer. More importantly, she's earned it, as she could be outright the centerpiece of the company's programming for a long time.