While a match between Rhea Ripley and Becky Lynch sounds amazing on paper, the way that WWE has handled their match has been sort of disappointing. Their heavy investment into Ripley and Lynch interactions all but confirmed that Lynch would win the Elimination Chamber and become the Number One Contender weeks before the match even happened, and the feud between Ripley and Lynch has been unfortunately forgettable.

You know what’s not forgettable? The revival of Lynch and Liv Morgan’s tensions, with Nia Jax thrown into the mix.

Morgan and Lynch have gone back and forth in the classic face/heel dynamic back during Lynch’s “Big Time Becks” gimmick, but this time around, both women are among the company’s top babyfaces. After Lynch interrupted Morgan’s match with Jax on the February 26 edition of “WWE Raw”, Morgan enacted swift revenge by interrupting Lynch’s match with Jax on last week’s episode of “Raw”. Both matches ended in disqualifications, much to the ire of both Morgan and Lynch. The lack of resolution with their matches have caused both women to turn on each other, and they have a match set for the March 11 episode of “Raw” in order to settle their differences.

Already, Lynch and Morgan’s current feud has been more memorable than Lynch and Ripley’s. You can empathize with Morgan’s initial frustrations at Lynch interrupting her match (Morgan telling Lynch that “not everything has to be about [her]” has been occupying my brainspace rent-free). You can also see how Lynch needed to put Jax away in order to focus on WrestleMania, and because Morgan thwarted her attempt to do so, Lynch has legitimate reason to be directly upset at Morgan. This is a rare case in which both parties have valid concerns, but those same concerns contest one another. This is so much more interesting than their previous face/heel feud, and even more interesting than whatever routine procedure Lynch and Ripley are doing right now.

That’s all Morgan and Lynch’s drama, but I would be remiss to write this and not discuss Morgan’s motivation for going after Ripley. After teaming at WrestleMania 38 in a losing effort to claim the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships, Ripley and Morgan (previously known as “Liv 4 Brutality”) imploded on the April 18, 2022 episode of “Raw”. The two women clashed multiple times afterwards as part of a feud between The Judgement Day and AJ Styles, Finn Balor, and Morgan. During this time, Morgan established herself as the last person to beat Ripley, to date. Morgan and Ripley’s paths crossed again in the 2023 Women’s Royal Rumble match, where they were the first two entrants, and the final two in the ring. Ripley eliminated Morgan to claim her Royal Rumble victory and secure her spot at WrestleMania 39.

If you’re wondering how I was able to recall, in detail, a years-long feud between Ripley and Morgan, it’s because WWE uploaded an hour-long collection of their tag team formation and implosion. They have at least an hour’s worth — probably more — of in-ring time together alone. If you didn’t think that Morgan and Ripley had history, there’s your proof.

Given that Morgan has current tension with Lynch and years’ worth of unresolved bitterness with Ripley, there is good reason to put Morgan in the match for the WWE Women’s World Championship. It would be a near-perfect union between the short-term storytelling that WWE is used to, and the long-term storytelling that many wrestling fans celebrate.

Jax is the odd one out in this feud. While I don’t think that her inclusion in the match would offer as much resolution as Morgan’s, I do think that she has improved significantly in the ring and on the mic — enough so that her presence would be an added benefit instead of a detriment. Fatal Fourways are infinitely more difficult to pull off than Triple Threats, but with enough time allocated to them, I think that Ripley, Lynch, Jax, and Morgan can pull off an entertaining build to WrestleMania, and an even more entertaining match.

Would making this match a multi-woman affair be the fairest thing for Lynch? No, but you’ve also been watching The Bloodline artificially extend Roman Reigns’ championship reign for the past few years. I think a bit of unfairness is okay in this situation, with the anticipated payoff being as big as it is.

Written by Angeline Phu