Rhea Ripley recently aired her frustrations about “fans” for harassing WWE Superstars at airports and hotels.
In recent weeks, footage has emerged of people waiting for stars at airports to try to get them to sign a large number of autographs, likely just to sell them online.
After an incident on March 20th, Ripley took to social media to make it clear she had enough, saying that she won’t sign anything other than personal photos of her with fans.
Rhea Ripley opens up on the incident that led to her airing her frustrations
During a recent interview with USA Insider, Ripley went into more detail about her recent experiences at airports.
“We fly around so much and we travel so much. Right now I’m doing both brands, so I’m at the airport pretty much every single day. So I run into fans every single day and there’s a lot of them.
“When it comes to signing, some of them have piles of the same photos, of the same action figures, of the same pop vinyls, of the same cards — and they want you to sign every single one of them.”
The Nightmare went on to detail the incident that led to her decision to limit autographs.
“So I had a fan follow me outside the airport today because I said no to them because I didn’t have the time and it was all of the same stuff they wanted signed.
“It was one fan specifically, he’s notorious, he’s always at the airport getting our signatures and selling them on eBay — we know his face, we know who he is. He was the main instigator, he followed me out and others followed him too and they all followed me as I’m trying to find my Uber.
“So I’m trying to tell them no and they’re all being persistent and I ended up getting lost, I had no idea where my Uber was, and I ended up down the stairs away from everyone else and I’m just surrounded by these five guys and they’re just hassling me. I don’t think people understand how threatening that is. Especially because you don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t know these people.”
Rhea Ripley made it clear that WWE Superstars are happy to take photos with genuine fans as they know they don’t just want to make money off them.
“If you’re a genuine fan and you just want a photo with us — we don’t mind taking photos. We love our fans, we love our support, and we love everything about the WWE Universe. If you want a photo, I’m down to take a photo, and I know everyone else is, too.
“If you have a photo of you and us together, I’m going to sign it because that’s a personal thing and I know you’re going to keep that and cherish that, and you’re a true fan, you’re not just trying to make quick money off us while we’re at the airport.”
For the 2023 Royal Rumble winner, it comes down to being treated like a human being instead of “products”.
“Just treat us with respect like we’re normal human beings instead of products. I find that a lot of the time when you go to the airport, people that are waiting there, waiting for signatures and autographs, a lot them — not all of them, there is some good ones in the batch that actually want to meet their favorite Superstars and that’s all good and fine, but it’s the ones that are trying to make money off our signatures and just treat us like we’re a product for everyone’s use.”
The issue of people harassing stars at airports has become so bad that WWE is reportedly fielding concerns from female talents in particular over the “nuisance” individuals while they’re traveling. WWE is said to be upset over the situation.
Rhea Ripley is set to face off against Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania 39 with the SmackDown Women’s Championship on the line. It has been reported the clash could be the main event of the first night of the annual spectacular. On the March 17th edition of SmackDown, tensions between the pair came to a head and they brawled in the ring.