Liv Morgan and Rhea Ripley came face-to-face after the former’s WWE Women’s World Championship defense during Saturday Night’s Main Event. Morgan completed the fifth defense of her 204-day reign against Iyo Sky, fighting through the high-flying and stiff offense from the “Genius of the Sky” to land ObLivion for the pinfall. She was busted open in the course of the match, having taken a knee strike directly to the nose, but managed to counter each attempt at a finishing move; she landed her own match-winning finisher as a counter to Sky’s attempted moonsault. 

As the champion celebrated her defense with Raquel Rodriguez and Dominik Mysterio as they made their exit, Ripley’s music hit and the rivals would stare one another down to close the segment. Prior to Sky, Morgan had last defended on two occasions against Ripley at SummerSlam in August and Bad Blood in October. The first of which she won via pinfall after a distraction from Mysterio, and then via a technicality as Rodriguez’s interference led to a disqualification. Ripley last defeated Rodriguez in an Anything Goes match during “WWE Raw” and had further pinned Morgan to win her team the Women’s WarGames match at Survivor Series, so it feels like just a matter of time for a third attempt at Morgan’s title reign.