The build to the WWE Women’s Championship match pitting title holder Jade Cargill against Royal Rumble victor Rhea Ripley has been terrible from the start, and it hasn’t gotten any better over time. Their first promo, on the March 6 edition of “WWE SmackDown” set the tone for the rest of the feud, and not in a good way, making it a dud from its very beginnings.

The promo was puzzling, as both women served each other with compliments about their body types, with Ripley ultimately saying her body wasn’t for show, like Cargill’s, but for practical power to win her championships. It was not a strong promo from either woman, and it left a bad taste in a lot of fans’ mouths.

The following week, after Cargill defeated Michin, she trash talked Ripley, which brought out “The Eradicator,” but when they went face-to-face, Cargill left the ring. Things only got more strange the week following, when Michin and B-Fab, who had been feuding with the champion for weeks, aligned with her to beat down Ripley and form a new faction.

Before all of this, Ripley and her former tag team partner, IYO SKY, went their separate ways, on good terms, so Ripley could focus on her WrestleMania opponent and singles competition. However, SKY was brought into the feud on the April 3 edition of the show to be backup for Ripley against Cargill’s faction. Despite how loved RHIYO is as a tag team, it was starting to seem like SKY wasn’t going to have her own match at WrestleMania, despite being locked in a feud with the Kabuki Warriors, specifically Asuka, for quite some time. It put a damper on the women’s title match, as the idea just to have SKY at ringside for Ripley at WrestleMania felt strange.

That’s not any fault of her own, however, as an ankle injury to Nikki Bella put things into question. Earlier reports indicated if the Bellas can’t go in their four-way match for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships, the Kabuki Warriors could be inserted, so Asuka wouldn’t be free to face SKY. As of the go-home episode of “Raw,” SKY and Asuka aren’t on the card, meaning SKY is likely to just corner Ripley on the “Grandest Stage of Them All.”

Cargill is notably not the strongest in-ring worker, and Ripley has had to change up her style recently. The match already wasn’t screaming “in-ring banger” from the start, and the fact their first promo was terrible did not help things. This match is an all-around dud, unless you’re a Ripley fan, as she’s the betting favorite to capture the title from Cargill in Las Vegas.

Written by Daisy Ruth