If you're a fan of women's professional wrestling, specifically within the WWE Universe, WrestleMania 40 was a bit of a mixed bag, with Rhea Ripley successfully defending her belt against original Four Horsewoman Becky Lynch, and Bayley, another OG of the Women's Revolution, taking down Stardom standout-turned-WWE Women's Champion IYO SKY in a Damage CTRL grudge match.
Discussing how it felt to see so much female representation at not only WrestleMania 40 but in WWE's weekly programming period during the post-show press conference, Bayley celebrated her fellow wrestlers, noting that, after pushing for the division to be taken seriously all those years ago, it's amazing to see “once in a lifetime” performers like Ripley showing out as some of WWE's top acts.
“Rhea is once in a lifetime. I get so jealous of her. First, I have so much respect for her because she works her butt off. You guys see Judgment Day on every single show like ten times throughout the night. That is not easy and sometimes not always fun. It’s very hard,” Bayley told reporters via Fightful. “I have all the respect for all the work she does. Plus, she puts on incredible matches. She’s so young, so athletic, she does one dropkick. I can’t do a dropkick to someone’s knees. Everything she does makes me mad [laughs]. I feel, as the time comes for the Four Horsewomen to lift the division up and get better and better, as we wanted to from the beginning, I’m glad it’s going to someone like Rhea Ripley, and somebody like Bianca Belair, Liv Morgan, Zoey Stark. There are so many women itching to get out there. Candice LeRae is finally showing her face out there. All the girls in NXT. Roxanne Perez, Lyra [Lyra Valkyria]. This is exactly what we wanted. If she’s ready to take it on, I am very proud, and I’m very glad to watch it happen, but let me have my d**n moment Rhea.”
You know, you have to give Bayley credit, she named off about a half dozen performers across RAW, SmackDown, and NXT on the spot in her answer, and was pretty much correct in her assessment across the board. And the best part? With Ripley and Bayley now locked in as the top two performers in WWE's women's division, it would appear the duo is destined for a match of their own at some point down the line.
Rhea Ripley respects the Four Horsewoman, but there's a catch.
Speaking of Rhea Ripley's connection to the original Four Horsewomen, of which she has now beaten all four in singles competitions, Mami commented on what it was like to finally get a win over Becky Lynch at WrestleMania 40 during her media availability at WWE World of WrestleMania. While Ripley is proud of everything her predecessors accomplished in the past, she's ready to take the WWE Universe into a new era all her own.
“The Four Horsewomen era, it will live on forever. They accomplished so much. They took the women's division to heights that we could have only dreamt of,” Rhea Ripley told reporters via Fightful. “They've done so much for the business and I have all the respect for every single one of them. I feel like the way I have been going WrestleMania after WrestleMania, finally knocking off the Horsewomen, same as Bianca Belair, she's been doing the same, we've been proving that there is a shift coming, and these new women are taking over, and showing out. We're trying to take it to higher heights than it has been taken to. Obviously, Four Horsewomen, they are amazing at what they do and we don't want them to leave, but they're going to have to move over because we're taking over at the same time.”
To paraphrase Lynch in an appearance on Mystic Kitchen's Last Meals, the Four Horsewomen are closer to the end of their relevance in professional wrestling than they are to the beginning, as Mercedes Mone has already left the company and Flair hasn't been a full-time performer in quite some time, with few expecting her to work in the fall even when she's fully healthy in order to maintain her big match feel. For better or worse, WWE has to find new performers to help fill their place at the top of the card, and, considering how impressive Ripley and her contemporaries have proven to be, it's clear the promotion will be just fine… eventually. For now, however, it's clear the two generations have to co-exist and continue to vie for the same spots on the card, which should create some very exciting storyline opportunities.
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