Former WWE Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley was not always ‘The Nightmare’ who was terrorizing WWE. In her early days with the Stamford-based promotion, Ripley was a blonde girl who had a more of a sweet and calm personality. Recently, ‘Mami’ shared how she overcame all her insecurities.
While speaking to Stephanie McMahon on her new ESPN+ series, Stephanie’s Places, Rhea Ripley shared that one thing she was not happy about during her first run in WWE was the way she looked. So, she decided to change up her look to be more of herself. Thus, the Nightmare Rhea Ripley was born.
“The first Mae Young Classic, I cried before my match. I was terrified. I just felt like I wasn’t doing things to the best of my abilities. And it made people to start to doubt me again. Continuously getting the criticism and the little comments here and there, I felt like, I started doubting myself. I wanted to move back to Australia.”
Rhea Ripley had thoughts of returning to Australia
“I wanted to throw my dream away. It broke me to a point where I sat down with myself one day and I was like, ‘You need to be better. You need to prove people wrong. And you need to prove yourself wrong at the end of the day as well and it’s going to start with what is the most uncomfortable thing that you find about yourself.’ And for me, it was the way that I looked. I thought I was hiding behind my hair to like shield myself when I did get embarrassed. The long blonde hair.
“I would always have it in front of my face and then if I got embarrassed or anything, I would hide behind it. It was like a little cloak. I had to remember who I was and become myself, the real me.”
Rhea Ripley names her favorite bands and how she resonates with them
During the same interview, the former WWE Women’s Champion revealed her favorite bands. She also mentioned that those artists had similar personalities as her. Ripley also mentioned that she always wanted to mold herself around the bands as their style was her style too.
“Growing up, I’ve always loved my music and the bands that I have listened to. It was like, Papa Roach, Of Mice and Men, Motionless in White, who is now my all time favorite band. And they all have a specific style and they all are like heavily tattooed. But they are like the sweetest people at the same time. So, they look really scary but they are very very sweet. I don’t know, it is something about watching them growing up, I’ve always wanted to mold myself around that because that’s my style as well,” Rhea Ripley said.
Rhea Ripley is set to challenge IYO SKY for the WWE Women’s World Championship at WrestleMania 41 in a Triple Threat Match.
Stephanie’s Places is produced by Peyton Manning’s company, Omaha Productions. The full episode with Rhea Ripley is available to stream on ESPN+ now.
What is your favorite Rhea Ripley moment or match?
