Rhea Ripley On WWE WrestleMania 39 Victory: 'I Want My Name Etched In The History Books Forever'

Saturday night, Rhea Ripley defeated Charlotte Flair on Night 1 of WWE WrestleMania 39, beginning her first reign as "SmackDown" Women's Champion. Speaking to the media after the show, Ripley described the victory as "extremely satisfying," not least because her last WrestleMania match against Flair happened in 2020, "at a time when the world was shut down." But there was another reason the win was satisfying to Ripley: the fact that she is now the only woman in history to have held the "Raw," "SmackDown," "NXT," and "NXT UK" Women's Championships, as well as the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship.

"I'm here to make history," Ripley said. "Growing up in Adelaide, South Australia, I always got told that my dream of coming to the WWE would probably not happen. So just making it here is such an accomplishment, but being the first Grand Slam Champion, to have those exact championships, is so satisfying. I am so extremely proud of myself and my journey here to the WWE, and my journey here within the WWE. To be able to accomplish all those historic moments, man — that's the one thing that I strive for, making history. I want my name etched in the history books forever, and I've gone and done that."

Technically, Ripley is the fifth women's Grand Slam Champion, following Bayley, Asuka, Sasha Banks (now IWGP Women's Champion Mercedes Mone) and Flair herself. However, none of those women ever held the "NXT UK" women's title, which was unified with the domestic "NXT" Women's Championship at the Worlds Collide event in 2022. There's no word as yet on whether WWE will consider Ripley's accomplishments a step up from the other four, but if she wants to call herself the first true Grand Slam Champion, we're not going to tell her otherwise.