When Rhea Ripley confronted Shayna Baszler on the August 28, 2019 episode of NXT, the feud between the two wasn't supposed to last long.
Ripley and Baszler squared off on the September 11 episode, with Baszler winning by DQ. But that wasn't the original plan.
"Shayna had gone through pretty much everyone in NXT. I had finished with NXT UK and handed it off to Piper [Niven]. I was coming into NXT to do that promo. We were supposed to do a match later that night, because everything was taped at that time, and I was supposed to tap out," Ripley told Morgan Webster on the Wrestling Friends podcast. "It was supposed to be a one-off, I tap out, and that's it. As soon as my music hit, Full Sail was so loud. I cut my promo, the best I've had, and people popped so loud for it. I came back and everyone backstage was like, 'That was really good.' We go to get changed and Sara [Del Rey] comes in and goes, 'Change of plans, Rhea got too big of a pop, we have to change the ending.' Shayna was like, 'We've been telling you this for weeks. Every time we're on a road loop, Rhea gets the biggest pop out of anyone.' 'Yup, we believe you now.' They were like, 'We need to do a DQ so we can continue it.'"
The DQ finish set the stage for Ripley's feud with Baszler, which lasted through the fall and into the winter when Ripley dethroned Baszler as the NXT Women's Champion in December.
Ripley will have a crack at becoming a two-time NXT Women's Champion when she faces Charlotte Flair and Io Shirai in a triple threat match at NXT TakeOver: In Your House.
If you use any of the quotes above, please give a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.