There are now conflicting stories doing the rounds about the reason Rhea Ripley lost the NXT Women's Championship at Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania. Yesterday, we heard from PW Insider's Mike Johnson that her visa has expired, and she's now been forced to return to Australia to sort that out.
Given current travel restrictions, that means she will be unable to travel back to the United States for the foreseeable future. However, Dave Meltzer has shared a slightly different take on what's happening.
"I’m double checking on this but one person high up just denied that to me," he said of the visa story. "Again, I’m not saying Mike is wrong, in this company the left and right hand rarely know what the other is doing. But the person I checked with would know the creative reason given which was Charlotte to NXT for ratings help."
"Another person high up said inaccurate and she’s in Orlando right now. Clearly if she isn’t although supposedly that was just checked, people who need to know don’t know."
In other words, it definitely sounds like the reason Ripley dropped the title was because WWE is looking to boost NXT's ratings, something which could be beneficial to them in the war against All Elite Wrestling: Dynamite each week. Whether it pay off, however, remains to say!
We'll keep you updated as we continue to learn more.