WWE star Rhea Ripley has looked back on her history at WrestleMania and why her most recent match at The Show of Shows is the new number one.
The former Women’s Champion had one of the more unique Mania debuts as her first appearance at the biggest show of the year took place in 2020, with no fans in attendance. Reigning as NXT Women’s Champion at the time, Ripley lost the title to Royal Rumble winner Charlotte Flair.
While Ripley’s Mania debut didn’t go as planned in more ways than one, The Eradicator went on to have multiple defining moments on The Grandest Stage with victories over Asuka, Becky Lynch and Flair. Winning and retaining the title at WrestleMania, Mami has proven more times than one that she is on top.
While speaking with Chris Van Vliet, Ripley was asked which WrestleMania was her favourite, to which the former Women’s Champion first spoke about her rematch with Flair in 2023, which saw Ripley defeat The Queen:
“Honestly, the WrestleMania moment, I always said my match with Charlotte [at WrestleMania 39], because it’s everything that I wanted my first Mania to be. Because it ended up being the COVID Mania. I didn’t get my family, I didn’t get the crowd, I didn’t get anything that normally goes into a Mania. And it was just like, wow, I’m back at the place that I really didn’t like going to every day, and this is my WrestleMania. So to then go and face Charlotte again, but it being in front of a crowd, and I saw my family in the front row, I had all the adrenaline in the world. Everything was so perfect, and then I beat her for the first time. I won the SmackDown Women’s Championship, that was my WrestleMania moment.”
Continuing, Ripley then spoke about her match with IYO SKY and Bianca Belair at WrestleMania 41, which was regarded by many as the best match of the entire weekend. Although Ripley did not walk out with the title that night, the Raw star explained why the match meant so much to her:
“But then now I feel like the match with IYO and Bianca has triumphed that. I am literally so proud of that match. I love those two so much, going through NXT with them, overcoming things with them, watching them overcome things, watching them grow as performers, and then me growing as performer to get to that point where we could go to WrestleMania and have such a stellar match, and have people chanting, this is awesome, and us being the opener. I couldn’t ask for anything more. I understand I lost, it doesn’t matter at that time. It really didn’t, because that was IYO’s moment, but we all got a moment from it at the same time.”
Rhea Ripley Nearly Missed WrestleMania 41
While Ripley stated that her WrestleMania 41 match is the new number one for her at the biggest show of the year, there was a possibility that she could have missed the match altogether. Also in the interview, Rhea Ripley explained why she came very close to missing WrestleMania 41.
Rhea Ripley is set to face Raquel Rodriguez in a street fight at WWE Night of Champions on June 28. The show will air live on Peacock in the United States and on Netflix internationally.
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