New WWE champion crowned ahead of WrestleMania; 186-day reign comes to an end

Ahead of this week's episode of WWE SmackDown, the company aired its regular Speed shows for social media. WWE Speed is an exclusive show on X (formerly Twitter).

It was a huge week for Sol Ruca, who was challenging Candice LeRae for the first time and was climbing up the ranks from NXT. Ruca got the better of Rae and was able to pick up the win in a shocking turn of events, ending LeRae's title reign at an impressive 186 days.

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LeRae hasn't appeared on WWE TV since her loss at Elimination Chamber to Tiffany Stratton and Trish Stratus back in March in a tag match. Her partner Nia Jax has also been absent over the past few weeks, and there were rumors that she was injured, but Jax herself has revealed that this isn't the case on social media.

Neither Jax nor LeRae are expected to be on the WrestleMania card next weekend, which is a shock since both women were champions earlier this year and have since been shuffled and forgotten by creative.

It was a surprise to many that Jax and LeRae were not included in the recent gauntlet match to determine challengers for Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez, since the two women have worked as a team for much of the year on WWE SmackDown.

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