One of the top stars in the women’s division has looked back on their part in Rhea Ripley’s rise to superstardom in WWE.
Over the past couple of years, Ripley has become one of the top stars in the entire company. Having a year-long Women’s Championship reign, main eventing a Premium Live Event in her home country of Australia and regularly receiving some of the loudest reactions, Ripley has established herself with the mainstream fans. However, at the start of the decade, things were very different for Mami.
Reigning as the NXT Women’s Champion at the time, Ripley made her Mania debut against Royal Rumble winner Charlotte Flair. On top of the abnormality of that year’s Mania given that it was in front of no fans, Flair controversially picked up the win in a match that many thought should have been Ripley’s time. However, from that point on, Ripley gradually began to become more well-known with the fans.
Speaking with Alex McCarthy of Mail Online about the Mania 36 match with Ripley, Charlotte Flair spoke very highly about her first encounter with The Eradicator:
‘You know it’s crazy. Rhea and I have a beautiful body of work. That WrestleMania match, fantastic. No audience, but imagine if had that first WrestleMania match been in front of a crowd. Then when we were in front of a crowd at Money in the bank.
‘Right after COVID, that match was great and then the triple threat SummerSlam [2021] with Nikki [Cross]. There’s so many unbelievable – and that’s a strong word – but we’ve had great matches. Yeah, it’s a similar.”
It was then brought up that Flair has been pivotal in Ripley’s ascent up the card, to which The Queen also referenced their match of the year contender at WrestleMania 39:
“This is what I’m talking about – undeniably. Absolutely. And WrestleMania 39! All of them, because I can’t say a favourite, but they all have brought out a different side of me and challenged me in a different way and had pivotal moments in each one.”
Rhea Ripley Named As Future Dream Match
Much like Flair was previously named as a dream match a few years ago by many rising stars in wrestling, Ripley is also being named by many stars of the future. In a previous interview, a recent WWE signee named Rhea Ripley as one of her dream matches.