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

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 latest one in Philadelphia Sky defeated Rhea Ripley for the Women s World Championship weeks before WrestleMania 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 COMSince 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 narrated 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 commented ahead of WrestleMania Night She s been my favorite for years even before she was on the Stardom scene WRESTLEMANIA SEES NEW CHAMPIONS CROWNED AND SHOCKING BETRAYAL 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 scant weeks I m champion for a reason ' Sky lost to Bayley in a women s title match at WrestleMania Bayley was cast out of Damage CTRL in the weeks after she won the 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 stated 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