Real reason why IYO SKY ended Rhea Ripley's Women's World Championship reign predicted by WWE veteran; a purely business decision
IYO SKY ended Rhea Ripley's 56-day Women's World Championship reign last night on WWE RAW. Wrestling veteran Jonathan Coachman recently explained why he believes it was a business decision.
Last Saturday, Bianca Belair won the Women's Elimination Chamber Match to earn a shot at the Women's World Championship at WrestleMania 41. Last night, she sat at ringside to watch The Eradicator defend the title against The Genius of The Sky. Ripley surprisingly lost the title to the Damage CTRL member after getting distracted by The EST. SKY would now go head-to-head with Belair at The Show of Shows.
Speaking on the Behind The Turnbuckle: The Last Word podcast, Coachman claimed the Triple H-led creative team took the title off Ripley and put it on SKY to have a champion representing the Asian audience.
"The bottom line is this, you need to think about business; you need to think about the world. And sometimes our minds stay in the United States. There's a big part of the world over there that's called Asia, and in Asia they have billions of people," he said.
The Coach added:
"So now that we're on Netflix, you can't just say the United States anymore because it's in 85% of this great world of ours, including a major part of Asia. So what they're doing is, whether you like it or not, they are placating, and they're allowing that fanbase to now have a champion in the WWE so it will raise the viewership in that part of the world."[1:12:16-1:13:02]
Ex-WWE writer addresses IYO SKY's title win
On Sportskeeda Wrestling's Legion of RAW, former WWE head writer Vince Russo discussed IYO SKY's victory over Rhea Ripley. He pointed out that the Damage CTRL member is seemingly popular backstage.
The former WCW World Heavyweight Champion suggested the 34-year-old won the title because ''somebody loves her" and thought she deserved to main-event WrestleMania.
"Because somebody loves her, that's why! I'm telling you somebody said IYO SKY deserved to be in the main event of WrestleMania. I'm telling you, somebody there said it, and they are going to make that happen," he said. [From 43:00 onwards]
Former employee Tommy Carlucci recently claimed IYO SKY beating Rhea Ripley could be a step towards the return of Becky Lynch. It will be interesting to see if that happens.
Please credit Behind The Turnbuckle: The Last Word and give an H/T to Sportskeeda if you use the above transcription.