Night one of WrestleMania 39 saw Rhea Ripley defeat Charlotte Flair in a classic bout to secure her first WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship.
The Australian Superstar earned her shot at WrestleMania glory when she won the 2023 Women’s Royal Rumble match. The following night on Monday Night Raw she would go on to declare that she wanted to face SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair at ‘The Grandaddy Of Them All’ in an attempt to gain retribution for her previous losses to The Queen, including a defeat in their NXT Women’s Championship match at WrestleMania 36.
The pair have won widespread plaudits for their near 24-minute encounter at SoFi Stadium at WrestleMania 39, with many fans claiming that the match was the best of the entire WrestleMania weekend. One former WWE veteran, however, has gone one step further than that in his analysis of the match.
Rhea Ripley and Charlotte Flair had the best match women’s match of all-time says WWE veteran
Dutch Mantell has made his name in the wrestling business over the past 50 years as an in-ring performer, manager and booker. He has enjoyed stints in WWE during that time as Uncle Zebekiah and Zeb Colter and continues to critique the current product on his podcast ‘Story Time With Dutch Mantell’.
Despite a recent run-in with Charlotte Flair’s father, ‘Nature Boy’ Ric Flair, Mantell spoke highly of the bout on the latest episode of his podcast, labelling it as the best ladies match he had ever seen:
“Going into the match, I didn’t have high expectations for it, but they surprised me, and at the end I had to admit that was hands down the greatest female match, or ladies match, I’ve ever seen. They picked the right stage to do it on, and it was the right time to switch the belt from Charlotte to Rhea.”
Mantel would go on to praise the Judgment Day Superstar’s current work, naming her alongside other current top heels Roman Reigns and Gunther:
“Roman is hot, Gunther is hot, Rhea and Dominik’s hot. If you’ve got three hot heels like that, you don’t need anybody else. That’s your card. If you go into a town with six matches, they’ll be in three or four.”
H/T: Sportskeeda for the above transcription