On a recent edition of the “After the Bell” podcast, WWE commentator Corey Graves shared his enthusiasm for the Charlotte Flair vs. Rhea Ripley SmackDown Women’s Championship match from this month’s WrestleMania pay-per-view event, calling it one of the greatest WrestleMania matches of all time.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On the match not main eventing night one: “So I didn’t experience that as a commentator, I experienced that as a fan. I was the biggest fan inside SoFi Stadium during Rhea and Charlotte. And listen, we get a little bit in the weeds here on After The Bell, and Charlotte Flair was very open about wanting the last spot, the main event spot, on WrestleMania Saturday. It obviously went to the tag team title match. No complaint from me, no argument, both were completely deserving.”
On his opinion of the match: “What it felt like to me, knowing Rhea and Charlotte very well — Charlotte better than Rhea, I’ve been friends with Charlotte for many years — was those two women walked the aisle, got in the ring and very, very loudly and angrily declared, ‘Follow this.’
“Because they went out there with a vengeance, on a mission, and delivered one of — prepare yourself, you can’t take this out of context. You can, and it’ll still mean exactly what I wanted it to say. Charlotte Flair vs. Rhea Ripley for the Smackdown Women’s Championship on Saturday was one of the greatest WrestleMania matches ever. Period. I’m not qualifying it with title matches, women’s matches, matches that happened after 4 PM Eastern, no qualifier. That match was magic. I had all the respect in the world for both to begin with, and somehow they took it all to the next level. And this one? This is a hill I’ll do on.”
On what made it so great: “All of the above [the moves & story of the match]. It wasn’t the lead-up. It wasn’t the development of the story between the two. This to me, it was simple. It was two alpha females, the Queen and Rhea Ripley who has been steadily inching toward the top of the mountain. This was champion vs. challenger. This was beautiful in its simplicity. Two ridiculous athletes, two superstars in every sense of the word. It was a perfect storm.
“And then you put the stakes on it, like the Smackdown Women’s Championship. You’ve got Charlotte Flair for all that she’s done and accomplished in her career. Charlotte Flair does the Lord’s work at WrestleMania, man. I mean, that’s where Charlotte Flair should exist. And here comes Rhea, this upstart, she’s gonna change things. She is the change that a lot of people want to see, and she did it.”
