Charlotte Flair Beats Rhea Ripley, Wins Raw Women’s Title at Money in the Bank

Charlotte Flair beat Rhea Ripley at WWE Money in the Bank on Sunday to win the Raw Women’s Championship.

Flair stunned the titleholder after slamming her head against the ring post. From there, she wedged the champion’s left leg between the post and the steel steps before kicking the steps multiple times.

With Ripley visibly favoring the leg, The Queen applied the Figure Eight Leglock, and the Australian eventually had no choice but to tap out.

With the victory, Flair is now a five-time Raw women’s champion and 14-time women’s titleholder overall during her WWE tenure.

Sunday’s bout was a rematch from Hell in a Cell when the two women clashed in the semi-main event with the belt on the line. With Flair pushing the titleholder to her limit and putting her reign in jeopardy, The Nightmare took a shortcut by hitting her rival with part of the announce table and getting herself disqualified.

Adding insult to injury, Ripley attacked Flair after the match was called off, and they brawled back into the ring until the Aussie put The Queen down for good with Riptide.

The next night on Raw, WWE officials Adam Pearce and Sonya Deville addressed the situation and agreed that Flair deserved another title shot. As a result, she was given her rematch at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view.

Sunday marked The Queen’s third title opportunity since she was left off the WrestleMania 37 card, as she was also part of a Triple Threat involving Ripley and Asuka at WrestleMania Backlash.

Ripley won that match by pinning The Empress of Tomorrow, meaning she technically still hasn’t beaten Flair.

The history between The Queen and Ripley dates back to WrestleMania 36 when the former beat the latter for the NXT Women’s Championship after having won the 2020 women’s Royal Rumble match.

In terms of one-on-one singles matches, Flair entered Sunday’s contest with a 2-0 record against Ripley, perhaps making the Aussie the underdog to win and retain the title.

Flair backed up her status as the favorite with a big victory at Money in the Bank, and she is now poised to enter SummerSlam on August 21 as the Raw women’s champion.

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