Rhea Ripley will be challenging Jade Cargill for the WWE Women’s Championship at WrestleMania 42. The Nightmare earned her shot after winning the 2026 Women’s Elimination Chamber match last weekend.
Fans are already deeply invested in their rivalry after their trash talk on X (fka Twitter) turned into a real-life confrontation. However, responding to a fan post about an alternate plan, Cory Hayes of BodySlam cleared the air and confirmed that Cargill vs. Ripley wasn’t the original plan by the Stamford-based promotion.
The real plan was to book Bianca Belair against the former AEW TBS Champion and her ex-tag team partner. The company was hopeful that the EST of WWE would recover by that timeframe, but unfortunately, it did not happen, and she is still on the road to recovery.
“That was always the plan as they were hopeful that Bianca would be healthy. She was supposed to win the Elimination Chamber,” he wrote.
https://x.com/Cory_Hays407/status/2029928404879851769
Belair has been out of action since last year’s WrestleMania due to her finger injury, which she sustained during the Women’s World Championship match against Rhea Ripley and IYO SKY.
Rhea Ripley is set to confront the WWE Women’s Champion
We are just hours away from the post-Elimination Chamber edition of Friday Night SmackDown, and The Eradicator is advertised for the show. She is set to confront her WrestleMania 42 opponent.
Things might get a little chaotic between them, given their real-life altercation on X, where Women’s Champion Jade Cargill crossed lines, and their segment on the blue brand could also slip out of their hands. They might end up taking some personal jabs at each other, something that happened last year during the Mania feud between Charlotte Flair and then Women’s Champion Tiffany Stratton.
That said, it will be interesting to see how the Women’s Championship feud unfolds as WrestleMania approaches and when Bianca Belair returns to the company.