Rhea Ripley dethroned Jade Cargill at WrestleMania 42 to become the new WWE Champion, and she did all of that in ten minutes. In this day and age, that is considered the average time for a pro wrestling match within the confines of the WWE.
Whether that average time caters to the severely diminished attention span of this generation or reflects deficiencies in the creative process, some individuals could probably take a break to make a bagel with cream cheese or a peanut butter jelly sandwich and miss the entire match before coming back to a plethora of superfluous ads. Nonetheless, Rhea Ripley moved on from Jade Cargill and is currently feuding with Jacy Jayne, who has as much of a chance of dethroning Ripley as the NY Mets have at winning another World Series.
However, it would be quite insular to acquiesce to the vices of Major League Baseball when analogizing the inexcusable shortcomings of the women’s division on SmackDown. Jacy Jayne and Fatal Influence are cowardly heels who nefariously succeeded throughout their NXT careers. However, their skill levels on the microphone and in the ring are inadequate for world title contention.
This is not to say that they should be eating green beans in catering. Rather, they are just better suited in the mid-card and tag divisions. Jacy Jayne would be a major threat to Tiffany Stratton’s U.S. Title, and Fallon Henley and Lainey Reed would be major threats to Paige and Brie Bella’s Tag Titles. With that being said, here are the three actual threats to Ripley’s World Title on the road to SummerSlam.
Blake Monroe
Blake Monroe is set to debut on SmackDown soon, and she should be a top candidate to dethrone Rhea Ripley. Blake Monroe has had compelling character work ever since her time in AEW as Mariah May. The fact that she was the champ of the mid-card in NXT when she is actually world championship material is baffling.
She has this majestic and captivating aura to her that makes the fans listen to every word that comes out of her mouth and pay attention to every move she makes in matches and segments. Other than her character work being worth an investment, she has also been delivering bangers in the ring, stealing the show at every event.
Her immense talents have proven that she is already main roster-ready, and the most notable feud in her career was with “Timeless” Toni Storm. Rhea Ripley also has plenty of history with Toni Storm from her days in NXT UK, and it can be argued that said feud was the best feud of Ripley’s entire career as well.
If Blake Monroe can win the Queen of the Ring Tournament, that would launch her straight to a world title match against Rhea Ripley at SummerSlam. However, since she is European, it would even be more suitable for her to have a battle with Ripley for the title at Clash in Italy. If WWE wants to sell tickets, they would not hesitate to book that match.
