Rhea Ripley RETAINS WWE Women's World Championship Against Becky Lynch at WrestleMania XL

In the opening bout of Night 1 of WrestleMania XL, WWE Women's World Champion Rhea Ripley of The Judgment Day defeated Becky Lynch to successfully retain her championship.

Match coverage courtesy of Matt Boone of Rajah.com:

WWE Women's World Championship
Rhea Ripley (C) vs. Becky Lynch

Cole talks to Pat McAfee and Corey Graves at the commentary desk at ringside to set the stage for our first match of the evening. An entrance that shows excerpts from Becky Lynch's new book, "Becky Lynch: The Man: Not Your Average Average Girl" is shown, with paragraphs highlighted that we hear her reading as clips are mixed in of her WWE career. This transitions to her regular theme and out she comes with the aforementioned war-paint or make-up and a fluffy, fancy robe on.

She looks 100-percent all-business as she heads to the ring clearly on a mission to kick things off on a big note in our first match of the evening. The crowd shows her a ton of love coming out. As she settles in the ring, Cole introduces the Spanish commentary team for tonight's show. They have their brief on-camera introduction and then we shift to the top of the stage where we see the band Motionless in White perform the theme song for Rhea Ripley live.

The crowd roars as they continue to play and then after a slight delay, out comes The Judgment Day's own "Mami," the reigning-and-defending WWE Women's World Champion Rhea Ripley, who dances a bit alongside the lead singer of the band playing her theme live. As Ripley makes her way to the ring, the lead singer tells the crowd to make some noise for the demon of our dreams, Rhea Ripley. She poses with her title belt on the ring apron for another sustained roar from the Philly crowd.

It's time for our first match of the evening with a world championship on-the-line here at night one of WrestleMania XL. The bell sounds, Samantha Irvin handles the final formal pre-match ring introduction for the champion and the challenger. The bell sounds and we're officially off-and-running with this one. Cole mentions that Lynch has been sick all week with strep throat and a tempature as high as 102. McAfee added that Ripley was working through a wrist injury.

Early on, Ripley performed an early Northern Lights suplex into a bridge for a two count. Ripley went for a vertical suplex, but Lynch countered into an inside cradle for a one count. Ripley powered up Lynch and executed the suplex and then got a two count. Ripley went to the ropes and did the Eddie Guerrero shimmy. Lynch ran up the ropes and pulled Ripley down with an arm drag. Lynch executed a tornado DDT for a two count. Lynch draped Ripley over the middle rope and then hit her with a second rope leg drop.

Lynch performed an exploder suplex that sent Ripley into the barricade. Back inside the ring, Lynch executed a top rope leg drop on the back of Ripley’s neck and got another two count. Lynch went to the middle rope and dove at Ripley, who caught her and slammed her to the mat. Lynch tried to get up and was blasted by a knee strike that led to a near fall. Lynch caught Ripley in a crossarm breaker. Ripley powered up Lynch and slammed her to the mat twice, but Lynch maintained the hold.

Ripley powered her up again and used a sit-out powerbomb to break the hold and picked up a near fall in the process. Cole acknowledged the chilly conditions again. We see the action spill out to the floor where we see a big electric chair spot and another Dis-Arm-Her from Lynch. Back in the ring, Ripley hits another big Rip-Tide and taunts Lynch as she struggles to get up in the corner of the ring. Ripley heads to the top-rope and looks to bring Lynch up with her in the suplex position.

Lynch fights back and hooks Ripley for a Man-Handle Slam, but Ripley avoids it and ends up hitting a Rip-Tide Buckle Bomb and then another Rip-Tide in the middle of the ring for the pin fall victory. With the win, Rhea Ripley retains her WWE Women's World Championship. Excellent opening match to set the tone for night one of WrestleMania XL. The right person won if you gauge the reaction from the crowd throughout the match and to the finish in particular.

Winner and STILL WWE Women's World Champion: Rhea Ripley

#RheaRipley rules at #WrestleMania XL!

The Women's World Championship remains firmly in the grasp of MAMI. pic.twitter.com/E47EiA90Am

— WWE (@WWE) April 6, 2024

 

MAMI-Mania XL#AndStill pic.twitter.com/gSMBVkWma1

— WWE (@WWE) April 6, 2024

⚡ WWE WrestleMania XL Results (04/06/2024)

The following are the ongoing live results of tonight's WWE WrestleMania XL premium live event, courtesy of Matt Boone of Rajah.co [...]

— Caylon Knox Apr 06, 2024 07:40PM