Rhea Ripley: Mami Is ALWAYS On Top, Dirty Dom, Crazy Fans, Fav WrestleMania Moment, Buddy Matthews

https://cvvtix.com - Get your tickets for INSIGHT LIVE in NYC with VIP Meet & Greet!

Rhea Ripley (@RheaRipley_WWE) is a professional wrestler currently signed with WWE. She sits down with Chris Van Vliet to discuss her rise in WWE, working with Dominik Mysterio and being called "Mami", intergender spots and being compared to Chyna, her favorite WrestleMania moment, her viral stinkface spot with Nia Jax at a house show, an unwanted fan visit to her house, how she came up with the Riptide as her finisher, overcoming anxiety, her husband Buddy Matthews and more!

Quote I'm thinking about: “The more you practice the art of gratitude, the more you have to be grateful for.” Norman Vincent Peale

On the celebrity she wants to meet the most:

"I think everyone knows who it is, David [Howard Thornton], good old Art the clown. I want to meet him so bad. I'm just waiting for that day. I've been trying to get him to come watch WWE, and it's just like our schedules just don't line up. But one day I will meet him, and I hope that I'm not too annoying. I really hope I'm not too annoying. I love my fans, but I really hope that they haven't made my name stale to him, because he's probably heard it over and over and over again, 'Do you know Rhea Ripley?' He's like, 'Yes, I know Rhea Ripley.' So I'm excited to meet him one day."

On whether she thought this success was possible:

"Honestly, no. I always talk about my Riot City Wrestling try-out, and it's funny, because my coach, he went around the room after the try-out and was like, 'Where do you want to go in wrestling?' He asked everyone in the tryout, and everyone said, 'I want to make it to WWE.' He straight up got sick of that answer. He's like, 'I don't want to break your heart or ruin your dreams, but that's probably not going to happen. We're in Australia. We're very, very far away. WWE doesn't really come here, so making it to WWE is going to be extremely difficult and probably won't happen.' So for me, I was a little bit realistic about that, and I was like, I just love wrestling. I find it fun. I find it entertaining. I like going out there and entertaining a crowd and showing people that they can do whatever they want to do, especially a female in such a male-dominated sport. I liked that challenge.

I've always been someone that likes a challenge, but I never thought that I would be able to make it as far as I've come. Even by the time that I did get signed and I moved to America and I started NXT, I never thought that the name Rhea Ripley would be as big as it is now, and it's just wild to see, especially the last couple years how much I've blown up. I forget who I am sometimes. I'm walking around and I'm like why are these people looking at me? Do I look like a 13-year-old boy? Just staring at me because I look stupid, what is wrong with me right now? Is my hair staticing to my face or something? Why are they looking at me? And I get mad. I’m like, look away. Take a photo. It'll last longer. And then I'm like oh sh*t. They probably know who I am. I just get mad sometimes. I just forget that I'm known. If I knew that they knew who I was, I wouldn't feel bad about it. I'd be like, oh you want a photo? I'd be really nice. But it's just like, I forget that I'm Rhea Ripley sometimes."

On the inspiration behind the name Rhea Ripley:

"So when I first started, they asked me for five combinations of names, and I went through trying to make combinations of names that I liked from either band members or just strong women in general." 

What were you going by before? 

"Demi Bennett, which is my name. I don't know why. They just didn't want to change my name. They're like, 'Yeah, Demi Bennett is good. It's a good wrestler name.' It's really not. I'm glad because some people have three, four wrestling names, and I'm glad that I just have two."

On how the names paired together:

"Oh man, this is a long time ago. I really like the name Isla. I love the name Isla. And that was one that I didn't actually pull from anything, but it was Isla Radke, because at that time, I really loved Falling in Reverse and Ronnie Radke. He's the main singer, so I loved his last name, just because it was so different. You don't really hear Radke, especially not in Australia. I don't know about America, but I like that one. And then there was something Ashby. I can't remember what the start of that one was. It was something Ashby. And [Alan] Ashby was the guitarist for Of Mice and Men. And then Rhea Ripley came from, Rhea is a Goddess's name. And I was like, she's cool. I like that. And then Ripley came from Alien [Ripley played by Sigourney Weaver]. She was a badass, and I was like, I want to be like that. I want to be a badass. They just mesh so well together with the RR, it just always works out. I mean, you see Roman Reigns, Ronda Rousey, Ruby Riott, Raquel Rodriguez, I don't know what it is, it just works. But yeah, Rhea Ripley just stuck, and we were getting ready for the first Mae Young Classic, and I think it was Bloom, I believe, just walked past and he goes, 'Rhea Ripley.' I go 'I guess so?' I got no choice. I sent you my five names. You guys pick one."

On still feeling the pressure:

"I feel that pressure all the time. I've said it before, but WrestleMania 40 against Becky Lynch, I was terrified. I worked myself up so drastically that whole day, and I put so much extra stress on my own shoulders with things that I couldn't even, they weren't my responsibilities. I worked myself up because Becky was sick, and I was like okay, well, I need to be at 110% so that I can help her wherever I need to help her. Then I hadn't had many matches, so I was like, I need this to be a good match. I need people to remember that I can actually go and I can actually wrestle. Because a lot of the times back then, when I had the championship, I wasn't wrestling a lot, and that made me a little rusty, then I got self conscious, and I'm just like, I don't want to sh*t the bed. I don't want to go out there and have a stinker and then have people say, 'Oh, this is why she shouldn't be champion.' 'She sucks.' 'She can't wrestle.' 'She's overpushed.' 'She's Rhea Hogan.' I didn't want all of that to start spiraling, because it does, and it's hard to escape from." 

"So I just had so much stress on my shoulders, and I get ready super late too, which doesn't help the fact. I remember sitting in hair and makeup, and I was just freaking out, because I think the show started at 8. I was in the chair at 7:30 and I wasn't dressed yet. I was like, Okay, well, Gorilla is a good 10-minute hike. It's all the way on the other side of this building, and I also don't know how to get there, because I haven't been there all day, and I'm just sitting there panicking, and I'm like, I need to put my boots on. I had these boots that I've never worn before, and they go over the knee, which is a lot of tying. My normal boots take a good five minutes for each boot. It's going to take a long time, and they're brand new. Am I going to be able to walk in them? Am I going to be able to move and wrestle in them? Are they too tight? I just overthought everything and that happens so much more than I would like to admit, but it's such a stressful thing going out there and being on live television, where anything could really happen. We've seen injuries happen. Zoey Stark got injured and Kairi and I had to go out there and have a singles match when we were supposed to have a triple threat, and it was Kairi’s first match back within months. She was gone for months, and I haven't wrestled Kairi since an NXT house show. So it's like, okay, how do we do this on live television? If we stuff up, no one's getting blamed but us; they're not going to blame anyone else. We're the two in there, and we're the two going at it and on live television. We got to put this stuff together." 

On her favorite WrestleMania moment:

"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. 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."

On her husband Buddy Matthews saying she’s his favourite wrestler:

"It's safe to say he's mine too. He really is. He moves so incredibly well for the size that he is. He's so smooth with everything, and he's so crisp. And just everything that he does is perfect. I don't think I've seen this man have a bad match. And I've watched him since Australia. I used to go to Riot City, he used to be in the ring, wrestling, doing his thing. I don't think I've seen him have a bad match. I used to hate him. I think he said this when he was [on Insight]. I hated him. I hated him with a passion because I loved Sway, which was a female wrestler, and he was from Melbourne. He came from the back, and he just punched Sway straight in the face. I was like, sir, how dare you? I don't think I saw him before that too. I think that was my introduction to Matt Silva at the time. And he punched Sway straight in the face. And then Jimmy Scarlet jumped the barricade and chased him away. And then they had a whole feud and all that. But, yeah, I didn't like him."

On an impromptu dog adoption:

"It was the day that I got back after vacating the title, because I was in the sling, and I was just depressed. I was so depressed. So this guy was in the middle of the road. It was this slither of an island in the middle of the road, and he's just holding this dog like this, and she's all four feet just dangling. He's got a sign. And we drove from behind, and we didn't see what the sign was. As we got to the other side, I tried to turn around, and he half turned I was like, I can't read it. [Buddy said] 'Do you want me to go around again?' I was like, yeah. And he knows, the verbiage better of what we said, because we both have different memories of it.

He went around again, and we missed it again. He turned and he's like, if I go around again, I know that we're going to have a dog. I'm going to get the dog if it's for sale, because it doesn't look healthy; it looks very malnourished. So we went around again, and by the time he went over the 7-Eleven, it was just like a wild goose chase, just trying to track this guy down. Then he was walking around the dumpsters, and I was like, Matt, he's going to dump this dog. We need to get this dog off of this person, because I don't know what he's going to do with it.

So then when we pull into 7-Eleven I literally rolled down the window, and I didn't even finish my sentence. I was like, 'How much?' And he's like, $100. Okay, first time I've ever had cash on me as well. I was like, it's meant to be. Then he starts talking, and then this lady comes over, and she's just like, 'We had a whole litter of them, and this is the last one, and if we had to keep her, then we’d keep her. But we got six dogs already.' I was like, These people don't have six dogs, not a litter of puppies. I was like, take your $100 go do what you got to do with it. Give me the puppy. I was in my sling, and I gave him the money, and he just holds her up to the window. I was like, 'Sir, I cannot grab the dog. Can you please just put it on my lap?' He's just holding it. I'm like, 'I gave you the money. Now give me the merchandise, give me the dog.' But as soon as she's out my lap, she curls up in a little ball, and she's just the cutest little potato that you could ever see." 

On working with Dominik Mysterio:

"Honestly, I think that was like another turning point in my career, being partnered with Dom and also being a part of the Judgment Day. It made me open up as a performer. It made me have to work a lot more because I was doing nine segments in a 16-segment show. Sometimes more. We were doing everything as a part of Judgment Day. I was running around helping Finn and Damian, and then helping Dom and doing promos, making business deals, wrestling myself, doing women's storylines. And I was just like, I had no time to think about absolutely anything. I just had to go. I was like, What do I need to do? Cool. Going live in 3, 2, 1, do what you got to do.

Then being partnered with Dom, it just helped my character transform into something different. Because I feel like in NXT, I was doing the same thing, but on different brands. I was on NXT UK, and I was that force that came from the second Mae Young Classic, and then that kind of transferred onto NXT, but in a babyface sort of manner, which was a little bit different, but kind of the same. And then as soon as I came to the main roster, it was in COVID. So Vince didn't know what to do with me. He didn't know if I was face or heel. And he's like, Well, she looks like a heel. And everyone was like, You don't understand, she's a babyface. People actually like it. He's like, Nah, she's a heel. So then going out there and being so confused on what I'm doing, but not having that crowd reaction to actually feed off of and prove my point that I was a babyface at the time. It made it really hard. And then after that, like, obviously the trial and error with the tag team stuff, but also, holding on to who I was in NXT. I feel like when I got partnered with Dom, I could actually blossom a little bit into something different. Instead of being the hard ass all the time, I was Mami."

Did you know Mami would become so popular?

"No, I was trying to push the Papi agenda. And they were like yeah, we can't do that. And then Priest was like, 'What about Mami?' I was like, Okay, guess I'll be Mami. I was really set on the Papi thing. I was like, I can be a little sh*t stirrer, just be Papi this, Papi that. But they're like, we just can't go there. And I was like, Okay, I respect that. Mami’s gonna grow on me, though." 

On her unique pin:

"So that actually started in Australia. I've been doing it for a long time. I pinned Zack Sabbath that way, which was an intergender match that I had. But I've been doing it for a long time. And I think the reason that it's really stuck with me is because Matt and Chris Basso, my trainers, they used to call it the sexy pin, and we used to laugh about it every time we'd do it, we’d be like, ha sexy pin. So it's just like, I think that's just stuck in my head. I don't know why. It's just my automatic movements now. It works. Very Rhea."

On slamming Luke Gallows:

"I got him up there, and literally, I think you could see the smile on my face like, Oh my God, I'm doing it! And then once I threw him down, I got so in this man's face. I was just screaming, 'Do you know who I am? I am Rhea bloody Ripley!' I'm just so hyped that I got this man up and held him for a couple of seconds and then slammed him because he's a big dude. He's long. When you pick up someone that tall, their body proportion, it rocks you around. So I was really proud of myself in that moment. And it's funny because Priest comes back afterwards, and he's like, 'Course, you had to go all Rhea on him. You just got so excited afterwards and just started screaming and made it look like it was nothing.' Sorry dad [laughs]. I was there to help you."

On the Chyna comparisons:

"I love them. I really do love them. I think she was such a unique being in this industry, and she really did open up so much for women, especially intergender wise, and just like being part of DX and all of that. She's done so much incredible stuff, and she's really someone that I look up to, especially being different, being bigger and bulkier and and just having a different build to a lot of the women, she's someone that I really do look up to. So I'm glad that I get the comparisons, but at the same time, like, I want to be the first Rhea Ripley. I love that the whole storyline with Dom, him being Eddie, me being Chyna, it kind of just flowed. And a lot of the stuff that we did, we didn't actually mean to match up with stuff that they did. It just kind of worked out that way. Even mannerisms, it just came so naturally that that would be what we would do. And we did it, we'd come back and then on Twitter, people would have like, comparisons of us doing it next to Chyna and Eddie doing the exact same thing. And we're like, wow, we didn't even mean to do that. So, I love that there's that comparison, but at the same time, I want to be like the first Rhea Ripley."

On the stinkface spot and the reaction:

"I knew it was gonna be big, but that sh*t exploded. It wasn’t even my idea. It was Nia’s idea. She's like, 'Yeah. And then you stink face me.' I'm like, ok, if you want. But then, before all of that, I was like, I think I should do like the Rikishi pull them up, just do the little dance beforehand. I was like, I'm not gonna get it spot on, so I'm just gonna do my own thing. But I'll do the whole gimmick and yeah, it still pops up on my Twitter, it's wild. I got so much publicity off that, but I also got so much like, negativity. I was like guys, you need to calm down." 

What do you mean? 

"Just people were saying that I'm taking the women's division back 20 years. And I'm like, That's not what's happening. It's a fun moment, and it's a house show. Am I not allowed to have fun? If it was anyone else, you'd be supporting it. I feel like people love to hate Rhea Ripley. And you know, the more you talk about me, the more you act like a fan, so continue talking. It wasn't even my idea, Nia wanted to take my ass to her face, just trying to make the wishes come true."

On some fans being jealous of her husband:

"I get a lot of people saying that on Twitter, the Dolph Ziggler meme is a massive one. 'It should have been me!' It's just funny to me at this point, because I'm like, I love my husband, and there's no way that I'm ever going to do anything bad to ruin what we have. But it's really funny watching people try."

On a fan turning up to her house:

"We looked at the Ring camera, and there's some chick at our door, and I didn't think anything of it. And I was like, Why does she keep ringing the doorbell and just stand there for eternity? And then we had our Australian friends who live near us, and they came to pick up our mail, and they go, 'This is for Rhea Ripley. I think it's fan mail?' I was like, Oh no, who the hell has my address? That's just something that people shouldn't be doing. That's kind of like crossing the line. We are normal people outside of work, and we like our privacy. We like to have our normal humanity. But I went back and I watched the Ring doorbell, and this chick was like she just came out of the movie Smile. I'm sorry if you're watching this lady, but you were terrifying. She was scary, she rang the doorbell, she got real close to it and just [smiles creepily]."

"Then she looks at her phone and she [smiles again], and she did this for so long. She was there for like 10 minutes, and then she left, came back, did it again, and then she left, and then she came back wearing something different and rang the doorbell. I was just like this lady really thinks that we're home, the cars are there because we left them there. If I was home, I wouldn't know what to do. If I opened the door and she was just standing there, what could have happened? She could have done anything, I don't know you; you could have attacked me, and I don't know how she got her car in the gate. We have a gated community, no one lets you in, terrifying."

"This stuff happens all the time with everyone. Like Liv had one the other day as well, and then there was a whole Roxanne stuff that was going on. People need to understand that wrestling is our passion, that's our love. But at the same time, you have to understand that that's our work, and it's like we go home and we're different people, and what you see on TV is not what you get outside of TV. So it's like we're normal people. Please do not come up to our house. Do not stalk our property, do not threaten to kill us over a storyline on WWE. And it's craziness like that, and people need to understand boundaries sometimes."

On deciding on the Riptide as a finisher:

"My finish from the first Mae Young, I was doing that for a hot minute, and I was like this is sh*t. It doesn't look impactful. It doesn't look good if people don't help me, I can't do it myself. Because, literally, if they're a little bit taller, I can't pick them up very high. So I was like, I need to work on something. I went to the PC, and Shane Haste, he was there, and he's like, I'll help you work on something. So him, me and Tegan Nox went into this squishy ring that we had, it was like a padded ring where you could do high flying stuff to practice. And it just a nice landing, instead of landing on the normal mat, which sucks when you're learning.

He was throwing out random moves and then we got onto the pump handle slam. And I was like, that's kind of cool, I like that one. I'd watch the video a little bit to see how it was performed, looks like it could be really impactful. So I did it with Tegan in the squishy ring for the first time. I said I like that. I think I'm gonna stick with this. It was at the time where everyone's trying to find a finishing move, and if you're not on TV, you've got to keep your stuff hidden, because people will steal it. So it was like, I hit it a couple of times, and I was like, Okay, I think it's good. Filmed it, had it on camera, and then I hid it away until the second Mae Young Classic. I hid it away for so long, and I was like, I can't let anyone see this move, because someone's going to do it on TV before me, and I can't get booked to save my life. I had to wait all the way to the second Mae Young Classic, where I finally pulled it out and hit it." 

On whether anything hurts due to wrestling:

"Normally my lower back, especially lately, I don't know what's been going on. I think it actually started from the match I had with Raquel in NXT, where she gave me the back body drop onto the announce table, but we undershot it and I hit the very edge of the table, like right on my lower back. After that, my lower back was never the same. But I mean, I do whatever I can to try and make it better. I have a masseuse Matthew come over and he works on it. He helps stretch me out, and puts my hips back in line pretty much, and just fixes all that. And thank God for him that he comes over to help. Because sometimes it gets really bad. I didn't think that I would be able to wrestle at WrestleMania 41."

On possibly missing Mania 41:

"WrestleMania 41, I didn't think I was going to be able to compete because my back was so bad leading up to it. The two nights beforehand, I got [my masseuse] Matthew to come to my room, and he worked on me the night before Hall of Fame and the night of Hall of Fame. I was like, I need you to make sure I can walk tomorrow. And he worked on me those two nights, and it loosened completely just in time for the match. Then after the match, it was okay, and then, slowly, because I've been wrestling more, it's just slowly tightens up, but that's because I just don't stretch on my own, so that's my fault as well. It gets really bad. I don't know if it's a sciatic thing or whatnot, or just my body in itself, the shape of my body and how I'm put together. I don't know what's going on, but it's something. But it does go down, and it definitely revs up sometimes, and sometimes it's just bearable."

What is Rhea Ripley grateful for?

"My husband, my dogs, family, my journey and my fans."

Please support our sponsors!
PURE PLANK: The future of core fitness! Use the code CVV to save 10% on Pure Plank designed by Adam Copeland & Christian: https://gopureplank.com/?ref=tibcloux

SEAT GEEK: Use my code for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/CVV Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount

PRIZEPICKS: Download the app today and use code INSIGHT to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup!

TIMELINE: Go to https://timeline.com/insight to get 10% off your order of Mitopure!

VUORI: Get 20% off your first purchase! Get yourself some of the most comfortable and versatile clothing on the planet at https://vuori.com/cvv

ROCKET MONEY: Download the Rocket Money app and enter “Insight With Chris Van Vliet” in the survey 

HUEL: Get 15% off plus a FREE Gift for NEW customers with the code INSIGHT at https://huel.com

MIRACLE MADE: Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made! Go to https://trymiracle.com/CVV and use the code CVV to claim your FREE 3 PIECE TOWEL SET and SAVE over 40% OFF

ZOCDOC: Instantly book a top-rated doctor today at https://zocdoc.com/insight

BONCHARGE: Use the code CVV to save 15% off your infrared sauna blanket at https://boncharge.com/cvv

BLUECHEW: Get your first month of BlueChew for free with the code CVV at https://bluechew.com

PLUNGE: Get $150 off your Plunge with the coupon code CVV150 at https://plunge.com