WWE champ Iyo Sky ‘thrives being underdog,’ longtime friend says ahead of WrestleMania 41 title match

Apr 20, 2025 | Uncategorized

LAS VEGAS – Iyo Sky will walk into WrestleMania as a women’s champion for the second straight year, but the match on Sunday night will be even more challenging than the recent one in Philadelphia.

Sky defeated Rhea Ripley for the Women’s World Championship weeks before WrestleMania 41, and it was thought she would only be defending it against Bianca Belair. However, Ripley inserted herself into the match, making it a triple threat for the title.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM

Iyo Sky at the Royal Rumble

Since then, Ripley and Belair have taken turns pushing Sky out of the way as they talked trash with each other. Sky, though shorter than them, made clear she wasn’t going to take any more disrespect from the two former champions.

Dakota Kai, a longtime friend of Sky’s and former Damage CTRL stablemate, told Fox News Digital she didn’t understand where the disrespect came from.

“She’s champion right now, you know what I mean? But I think with Rhea and Bianca, they’re so caught up in the issues that they have, they’re not even considering her a threat, but she’s champion for a reason,” Kai said ahead of WrestleMania 41 Night 2. “She’s been my favorite for years even before she was on the Stardom scene.

WRESTLEMANIA 41 SEES NEW CHAMPIONS CROWNED AND 1 SHOCKING BETRAYAL

Iyo Sky in 2023

“I also think Iyo thrives being the underdog though. I think she’s going to pull out a lot of stops on Sunday to show them like, ‘Hey, you’ve been overlooking me these last few weeks, I’m champion for a reason.'”

Sky lost to Bayley in a women’s title match at WrestleMania 40. Bayley was cast out of Damage CTRL in the weeks after she won the 2024 women’s Royal Rumble match.

Kai suggested that Bayley’s win was a driving force for Sky.

“She’s coming into WrestleMania again as champion, and she definitely wants to retain it obviously – who wouldn’t? I think, for her, she definitely has something to prove to come out of the match on top, which she is,” she said.

Bianca Belair on SmackDown

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Sky will look to walk out of Allegiant Stadium as champion.

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.

Latest Sports News Today on Fox News

Read the full article .

No related tags found.