When Becky Lynch took to the ring against Rhea Ripley at WrestleMania 40, it was a classic example of a hot young challenger going against a grizzled veteran with more years on top than the other has in experience, period.

Like Patrick Mahomes versus Tom Brady in Super Bowl LV before her, would Lynch hold off the next face of her division, at least for one more year? Or would Ripley, the reigning champion at only 27, be able to remain at the top of the roster in the biggest wrestling promotion in the world today?

Taking the ring in the opening match of the show, Lynch and Ripley had very different ideas of how to make a memorable entrance in the City of Brotherly Love, with the former opting to be walked down to the ring to excerpts of her book while sporting an ECW-inspired outfit, whereas Ripley took a different page from Paul Heyman's book, embracing the Rock-‘N- Wrestle connection with Scranton Pennsylvania's own Motionless in White performing her song down to the ring.

With the match still wrestled in the fading moments of sunlight, the duo attempted to see who deserved to call themselves the top dog in the WWE moving forward, with the right to “run Monday Night RAW” very much on the line… at least for the next month or two, as Paul “Triple H” Levesque let it be known that he expects to have a draft in the not-too-distant future to shake up the landscape and establish the first class of Superstars who will call Netflix home in 2025.

As Michael Cole, Corey Graves, and Pat McAfee pointed out on commentary, the story of the match was Ripley's wrist, which required her to wear a brace in the lead-up to the match. Unsurprisingly, this was Lynch's focus of the match, with her typical offense largely targeted at her opponent's arm to set up for her signature Dis-Arm-Her later on in the contest.

Still, Ripley isn't one to tap out when the going gets tough, and even as the match became more and more brutal with each passing minute, Mami found ways to get her offense in on “The Man,” locking her up in her Prisim Lock and delivering multiple Riptides all over the ring area, including the maneuver that ultimately won her the match.

With Ripley's title reign now saved at 372 days and counting, the “Eradicator” is now just a week and a change away from the longest title reign with the SmackDown Woman's Championship/Woman's World Championship of all time, which currently belongs to Bayley at 380. If Ripley can survive this week's RAW and next week's as well, we might be looking at the first major milestone in an all-time great title reign, the likes of which could define the women's division of WWE for the foreseeable future.

Becky Lynch wanted to wrestle Rhea Ripley first at WrestleMania 40.

So why, you may wonder, did Rhea Ripley and Becky Lynch go on first at WrestleMania 40? Well, according to the latter, the prospects of opening up the Premium Live Event and setting the tone for the entire thing was a very exciting idea heading into the show and might have played into the plans for the night, as she explained in an interview with ClutchPoints' own Andrew Korpan.

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Liv Morgan and Becky Lynch with fire emojis over their eyes with the RAW logo as the background.

Matty Breisch ·

The Rock with a text bubble reading "Congratulations, Drew!" next to Drew McIntyre with the WWE logo as the background.

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Jon Moxley, Roman Reigns, and Seth Rollins in front of the WrestleMania 40 logo.

Matty Breisch ·

“I would love to open the show. I would love that. I've never opened WrestleMania before. To open this one, as big as it is in Philadelphia, I'm just putting that out there,” she manifested with a laugh. “It would be pretty cool because if it's not the main event, I always want to be the opening spot — it's always a great place on the card because people are so excited,” Becky Lynch noted.

“Ooh, night one. I would love to open the whole of WrestleMania, you know what I'm saying? Just [to] be that first match for that whole event. [Opening the show will] give me enough time that I can relax and really enjoy Colby [Rollins] main eventing WrestleMania and getting to watch him do that because that will be so special.”

Would it have been cool to see Lynch and Ripley go on near the end of the show, potentially right before Seth Rollins' match with Cody Rhodes against The Rock and Roman Reigns? Sure thing, that drama sort of writes itself, but hey, now she and Roux can watch the match and hope the Lynch-Rollins family can at least go 1-1 on the night and potentially 2-1 at the event overall.