IYO SKY captured the Women’s World Championship from Rhea Ripley on Monday Night RAW. The title change came just days after Bianca Belair earned a championship opportunity at WrestleMania 41.
Belair, who won the Women’s Elimination Chamber Match last Saturday, was seated at ringside during the championship contest. SKY secured the victory after Ripley became distracted by The EST of WWE.
With this victory, SKY will now defend against Belair at WrestleMania instead of Ripley. The surprising title change has generated significant discussion among wrestling fans.
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Wrestling veteran Jonathan Coachman offered his perspective on the Behind The Turnbuckle: The Last Word podcast. He believes the decision was driven by WWE’s global business strategy rather than purely creative considerations.
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.
Coachman expanded on WWE’s potential motivation, citing the company’s recent partnership with Netflix as a factor in the decision to put the championship on SKY.
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.
The title change occurred during Ripley’s second reign with the Women’s World Championship. Her latest run lasted 56 days after reclaiming the title from Liv Morgan.
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