Rhea Ripley sat down with ESPN to look back at the biggest and best moments thus far in her WWE career.
The following are some of the highlights.
On the origins of her ‘Riptide’ move and how Shane Haste played a pivotal role in it becoming her finisher: “I was just trying things. I was practicing with Tegan and Shane was like feeding me different moves to try, and he’s like, ‘try the pump handle slam,’ and I was like, ‘okay.’ I tried it and I was like, ‘that’s really cool,’ and I did it for a little bit going into the second Mae Young (Classic) and then obviously NXT UK, and I would sit out with it and that was the way that I would do it for a while, and then my butt just hurt too bad. I was like, I can’t do this. This is going to really screw up my back later on. So I’m just going to start going to my knees. So that’s how it all like, came to life. It was really Shane Haste’s idea.”
On her WWE debut and how she was dry heaving due to nerves before going out to the ring: “Oh man, I just remember how scared I was. I was so scared, like right before this match, They had, because it was at Full Sail University, they had these tables outside where you go through to go into gorilla, and they’re like little umbrella tables, and I remember sitting at the table and I’m just like dry heaving, and I’m like, ‘I’m going to vomit.’ Like, ‘oh, I’m going to vomit. This is so scary.’ I was terrified. I was only 20 years old. I was just a baby. It was my first like televised match, and I just wanted to do good, dude.”
On nearly botching the finishing spot in the 2023 Women’s Royal Rumble match when gripping the ropes to head-scissor Liv Morgan out for the final elimination: “This is a big day. This is a very big day. Right now I’m thinking, please don’t fall, and then I slipped and I was like, ‘oh, please don’t let go.’ Like if I let go, I’ve screwed everything up. But like this whole day was just so stressful for me because I also came out earlier and I got speared by Beth on the concrete floor, like in the rampway, which is straight concrete. Yes, I was feeling that, and then I was like, OK, well, now I’m going to come in at number one. which is like the worst spot that anyone could ever come in as in the Royal Rumble. Cause like you have to outlast like 29 other women and it’s just virtually impossible. But I managed to get to the last three, and by then I was so sweaty, my hands were wet and I slipped, and as soon as I grabbed it, I was like, ‘do not let go. Like for the love of God, through all the weights that you picked up while being sweaty, this is the one you can’t drop.’ [I was] very close [to losing my grip on the ropes]. Very close. Like, I was so scared.”
On her memorable spot spearing Kevin Owens through a barricade at WWE Payback 2023: “I love beating Kevin’s ass. It’s my favorite. I don’t know. It’s just fun. I love fighting the guys in general. I really love beating up the men. I always have like since being a kid. I remember growing up and like literally beating my friend’s ass just because they would say like, girls aren’t as strong as guys. Like guys are so much stronger than girls, and I was like, all right, we’ll break it then, and I’d make them cry every time. Like I would make them cry. So I don’t know if it’s like, still part of my childhood that’s shining through, but I love beating up the men, and Kevin Owens is one that I’ve targeted a lot, and he’s just fun to beat up. I remember beforehand, he came to me. He’s like, ‘please just don’t kill me,’ and I was like, ‘you know I get excited.’ I get so excited when it’s involving a man. I don’t know why. So I was like, ‘I will try not to kill you. But if I do, I’m really sorry.’”
On CM Punk giving her a pep talk before her return match at WWE SummerSlam 2024: “The whole time. Like, if it wasn’t for the crowd making noise and obviously, like, being comfortable with the people that I’m in the ring with, like, I’m comfortable with Liv, I have Dom on the outside who I’m comfortable with. Like, without them, and then before this match, actually, CM Punk gave me a pep talk as well because he could see that I was, like, emotional and, like, stressed out, so he gave me a pep talk, and, like, without all of that as a combination, I don’t know how I would have got through this match.”
Watch the complete Rhea Ripley interview via the YouTube player embedded below.
