A WrestleMania Match Was Finally Made Official At NXT TakeOver: Portland

After weeks of back and forth, a championship match is now official: Charlotte Flair will challenge Rhea Ripley for the NXT Women’s Championship at WrestleMania. This will be the first time an NXT Championship has been defended as part of WrestleMania.

After Flair won the women’s Royal Rumble match, she announced that she was having trouble deciding on which women’s champion to challenge, as she’d held both championships and defeated both champions multiple times. That brought out NXT Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley to lay down the challenge for Mania. Flair’s held the NXT Women’s Championship before, but only once, and she’s never beaten Ripley … and Ripley’s beaten her.

Flair returned to Full Sail University for NXT, but didn’t make the challenge. That changed on Sunday night, however, as The Queen attacked the NXT Women’s Championship from behind after a successful title defense against Bianca Belair at TakeOver: Portland.

“So I thought about it, and I’ll see you at WrestleMania.”

Flair officially accepted the challenge dropped the champion with Natural Selection, and made sure to be a jerk to Belair on her way out despite the fact that Flair don’t even go here. We’ll have to wait and see if that attack turns things into a triple threat, but as of now, that’s a hell of a showcase for NXT at the biggest event of the year.