Merely days before WrestleMania, NXT Protege and Women’s Championship contender Rhea Ripley turned heel on the champion Asuka. The shocking incident happened during a tag team match on RAW.

As WWE announced earlier, Ripley and Asuka faced the Women’s Tag Team champions, Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax. However, towards the end, Ripley shoved Asuka on the floor as the latter went to the top rope.

Ripley went on the floor as well and leveled the Champion with some more attacks before putting her back to the ring. Shayna then hit the already weakened Asuka with a running knee and pinned for the win.

Following the match, Ripley tweeted out “You’re welcome” to Shayna Baszler.

Rhea Ripley taunts Asuka ahead of WrestleMania

After the last RAW ahead of WrestleMania, Asuka shared a meme captioned, “You’re not ready for The ASUKA.” To which Rhea Replied, “Tell me that “I’m not ready” again… I dare ya.” Ripley is indicating at the heel turn and more things that could befall upon the Champion.

To this, Asuka shared a video of her hysterically laughing with the caption, “seriously.”

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Asuka and Ripley actually go long back. As Ripley pointed out to New York Post, ” I remember when I was 17 I went to Japan for a three-month tour and I was actually on one of the same shows as Asuka. I don’t think she remembers me at all from it, but I really do remember her.”

Ripley was intrigued and loved the way “The Empress of Tomorrow” wrestled. Eventually, when Asuka got into WWE and had a winning streak, Ripley wanted to be the one to break it.

“I’ve always had that intrigue in wrestling Asuka. I feel like this match is definitely going to be a very hard-hitting match, and it’s going to bring things out of me — and hopefully her — that we haven’t seen before because it is a new challenge. We wrestle very differently and somewhat still the same. So I’m very excited to put on a great match for everyone.”

Asuka won her Women’s Championship at last year’s WrestleMania as champion Becky Lynch relinquished her title. Rhea, too, was a part of WrestleMania 36, but she lost her NXT Women’s title to Charlotte Flair.

Do you think Ripley can dethrone Asuka and become the RAW Women’s Champion this weekend? Let us know in the comments below.

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