Rhea Ripley Had A Panic Attack For 2 Hours Before Her WWE WrestleMania 40 Match

(Photo Credit: WWE)

Today at WWE World, Rhea Ripley participated in a Q&A session with fans. Check out the highlights below:

On facing Nia Jax at Elimination Chamber:

“It meant the world. It really did. I find it so hard to put into words exactly what my emotions were that day because they were just absolutely everywhere. I felt so excited to be home and be performing again in Australia. I hadn’t wrestled there in seven years, last time being for Riot City Wrestling, so to come back not only with the WWE and it being a PLE in Australia, in Perth, for that to happen and be the face of it, even the little emoji on X when you hashtag it, like that was Mami’s show. I was on the poster. I had Motionless and White as the theme song. Everything was set up for me, so going out there and having that moment with my country, with my family, with my friends, it’s hard to put into words exactly how special that moment was.”

On being able to see her family in Australia:

“They were so ecstatic to be there and have that special moment and live in it. My mom was crying. My dad was crying. My dad never cries, so seeing him actually get emotional, the only other time I saw him get emotional was WrestleMania 39. You could tell how proud they were and then to have my sister in the front row as well and have them all get on camera, all my friends, my cousins, my family and all of that, it was it was special.”

On wrestling Becky Lynch at WrestleMania Saturday:

“I legit was having a straight-up panic attack for 2 hours before I walked through the curtain. I was like violently shaking, just nervous. If you don’t get nervous before you go out, especially at WrestleMania, you obviously don’t love it enough. That’s the way I think about it. I’m glad that the nerves were there.”

In other news, a high-profile free agent is rumored to have joined WWE. Click here to read more.

(h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription)