After Bianca Belair won the women’s Elimination Chamber match this past Saturday, she appeared at Raw to watch Rhea Ripley defend the women’s world championship against Iyo Sky. Belair was scouting to see which woman she would go on to face for the title at WrestleMania, but her presence ended up being a deciding factor in the match.
Ripley was distracted by Belair’s mere presence at ringside and allowed that distraction to turn into disaster as Sky was able to score a shocking win and capture the title, setting her up to be a defending champion under the bright lights of WrestleMania.
CBS Sports was with you all night with recaps and highlights of all the action from KeyBank Center in Buffalo, New York.
Iyo Sky beats Rhea Ripley to claim the women’s world championship
Bianca Belair was interviewed early in the show. She declined to talk about Jade Cargill attacking Naomi at Elimination Chamber, saying she wanted to speak to both women first to get to the bottom of what happened. Belair was, she said, in the building to watch the women’s world title match and see who she would be facing at WrestleMania.
Women’s World Championship — Iyo Sky def. Rhea Ripley (c) via pinfall to win the title. Belair was ringside for the match and eventually caused a distraction when Ripley took exception to Belair openly cheering for Sky. After a brief shoving match with Belair, Ripley went to make an example out of Sky, but continued turning her attention to Belair. As Ripley went to hit Riptide from the second rope, she paused to talk trash to Belair. This allowed Sky to counter Riptide into a huricanrana and hit the Over the Moonsault to score the win and take the title.
This was a surprising turn of events. Sky has been fantastic for over a year now and certainly deserves another run as a world champion. But the money seemed to be on Ripley vs. Belair at WrestleMania. Now, it appears that it will either be Sky vs. Belair, or WWE will work things out into a triple threat, which has enough raw athletic talent to steal either of the two nights of WrestleMania. Kudos to WWE for continuing to throw surprising twists into the Road to WrestleMania. Grade: A-
What else happened on WWE Raw?
- CM Punk and Seth Rollins brawled to start the show. Punk was out first to cut a promo, focusing initially on The Rock and John Cena and calling both bald frauds. Punk said he’d eventually get his hands on both men and they’d wish he hadn’t. Punk then turned his attention to Seth Rollins, who he promised to put in a wheelchair. Rollins came out and Punk rushed him with the pair fighting through security multiple times in a lengthy brawl. After they brawled again later in the show, Adam Pearce agreed to make a steel cage match between the two at next week’s Raw at Madison Square Garden.
- Gunther def. Otis via pinfall with a powerbomb. After the match, Gunther locked Otis in a sleeper and then powerbombed Akira Tozawa onto Otis after Tozawa tried to make the save. Gunther was about to powerbomb Otis onto Tozawa when Jey Uso ran in for the save, eventually hitting Gunther with a spear. Uso was celebrating with the crowd when A-Town Down Under jumped him from behind. Uso was able to turn the tables and take them out before Gunther ran back into the ring and choked Uso out with a sleeper.
- Women’s Intercontinental Championship – Lyra Valkyria (c) def. Ivy Nile via pinfall with Nightwing to retain the title.
- Penta took out Ludwig Kaiser after Kaiser cut a promo saying he and Penta had unfinished business. After Kaiser said he would make Penta know fear, Penta came to the ring and ran through him with a flurry of offense.
- World Tag Team Championship – War Raiders (c) def. The Creed Brothers via pinfall after hitting War Machine. The match, featuring four large men, saw multiple high-flying moves, including 450 splashes, moonsaults and a shooting star press before the champions managed to retain the titles.
