WWE spent the week promoting a contract signing for Monday Night Raw this week between Asuka and Rhea Ripley for their pending Raw women’s championship match scheduled for night two of WrestleMania 37 on Sun., April 11, 2021, at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. There was an expectation that Charlotte Flair would somehow get involved, with Ripley saying she basically expected as much and PW Insider reporting Flair was backstage at the show.
That’s not what ended up happening.
It’s unclear why exactly that is, but Flair was nowhere to be seen. Instead, WWE just went ahead and recycled a storyline they literally already used this year for the other women’s title match taking place on night one of WrestleMania 37.
"We accept."
— WWE (@WWE) March 30, 2021
Did @RheaRipley_WWE just accept a tag team match for her and @WWEAsuka against WWE Women's #TagTeamChampions for the final #WWERaw before #WrestleMania?! pic.twitter.com/b7gYsxBBgF
After signing the contract and laying out Asuka, Ripley accepted a match against the women’s tag team champions, Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler, for next week’s episode of Raw. Commentary immediately wondered if the two would even be able to get along, considering they would be wrestling for Asuka’s title just days later.
Spoiler: they won’t. Just like Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair couldn’t get along when they went through this song and dance just a couple weeks ago.
Every story is recycled, of course, but doing this like this so close together shows how creatively bankrupt this promotion can be.