Perhaps an example of recency bias, but a match that simply cannot be ignored, is Naomi’s Women’s World Championship defense against Rhea Ripley and IYO SKY to open the second night of SummerSlam 2025. The match was Naomi’s first defense, and due to her pregnancy, her only, of the title, and her retaining the gold over two megastars in Ripley and SKY showed that WWE was confident in its decision to put the rocket on her after her heel turn.

SKY AND Ripley went after the champion to kick things off. After briefly taking a beating, Naomi was in control of Ripley in the ring, and commentary made sure to mention how hard she had worked to reinvent herself.

The champion didn’t let another Ripley and SKY one-on-one steal the spotlight during the match, despite her opponents doing their best to keep her out of things to continue their own story. Ripley looked to have Naomi pinned with a Riptide, but SKY broke things up just in time. She took a few more big spots, including a power bomb by SKY, dropping Ripley right on her stomach, but in the end, after Ripley hit a second rope Riptide to SKY, Naomi got a sneaky roll-up on the “Eradicator” for the win.

Naomi’s defense is the culmination of all her work to get over as a heel. She looked fantastic alongside Ripley and SKY, and the match was considered one of the best of the year for a good reason. The champion was perhaps the best she had ever looked, in terms of her in-ring abilities and her character work, up against her two opponents, and the match was a perfect way to kick off the second night of the event, the first time in SummerSlam history.