Throughout the late 1990s and into the early 2000s Dwayne Johnson and Stone Cold Steve Austin engaged in one of the most famous rivalries in WWE history. The two men met at three WrestleManias and were arguably the two biggest stars in wrestling when the industry was at it’s most popular.
In the near-two decades since that rivalry came to an end, many stars have tried and failed to live up to that billing. However, two of WWE’s biggest female Superstars have now set their sights on replicating those famous matches.
Female Stars Aiming To Be The Next Steve Austin And Dwayne Johnson
Ahead of squaring off at Survivor Series WarGames, Rhea Ripley sat down with the New York Post to discuss her rivalry with Bianca Belair. The two women have a rivalry that goes all of the way back to their time in NXT and continues to the present day. The pair had been scheduled to Money In The Bank but an injury to Ripley caused the bout to be cancelled. Reflecting on the match that never was, and her rivalry with Belair, Ripley said that they always want to create magic and steal the show.
“As upsetting as it was, I think it was a blessing in disguise. Bianca and I, it’s something that shouldn’t be rushed and we don’t want to rush it. Where that sort of felt like it’s gonna happen and that would be the end of it. We want our names to be etched in history. We want to leave our legacy where we can be in the ring together and make magic,” she said. “Bianca and I are perfect rivals pretty much.
We’ve talked about it in NXT before. We’ve talked about it here at Raw before. We pretty much want to be the next Stone Cold and The Rock. We want to have the storylines. We want to go out there and we want to steal the show.”
Rhea Ripley added that she only got cleared again just a week before she wrestled on the October 18th edition of NXT.
“A lot of it was the injury. I hadn’t been cleared for the longest time. I think I got cleared properly and fully the week before my NXT match (on Oct. 18). Apart from that, I pretty much wasn’t cleared that whole time (four months). After that there pretty much hasn’t been an opportunity for me to wrestle because I have been there with The Judgment Day and sort of their muscle. I help them out if they need me. I’m “the problem” as the OC would say. I feel like my wrestling career is just starting up again.”
At Survivor Series Rhea Ripley will team up with Damage CTRL and Nikki Cross to take on Bianca Belair, Mia Yim, Asuka, Alexa Bliss and a mystery partner.