Rhea Ripley has credited a former superstar with inspiration her unbelievable transformation.
When the 27-year-old Women’s World Champion first appeared for the company in the Mae Young Classic tournament back in 2017, she sported a very different look, with long blonde hair and more clean cut image.
Over the next few years, she started to put more of her own personality into her on-screen persona, to the point where now she steps out with shorter jet black hair, matching lipstick and tattoos all over her body.
‘The Rhea Ripley that we all saw in the first Mae Young Classic, I was 20. I was so young and I just wanted to please everyone. I was so scared of doing anything different or anything that I thought was different,’ she said.
‘But the Rhea Ripley you see today is what I was on the inside. I didn’t let it out because I felt like I had to fit a specific mould to be in the WWE.’
It turns out the spark of inspiration to change her look – which came when she was close to getting fired before – actually came from Ruby Riott, now appearing for All Elite Wrestling (AEW) as Ruby Soho.
It was a time where females weren’t big and bulky, they didn’t have tattoos. They all had the long hair and I’m glad for someone like — I don’t actually give her enough credit. But Ruby Riott,’ she told the , as transcribed by .
‘She was the first one that I really looked at and was like, “Wow, she’s covered in tattoos. She’s got short hair, she looks super cool,”‘ she added.
‘I remember tagging with her quite a few times on the coconut shows which are like the non-televised [events], and she helped me just bring out that side of me that was me and a lot of other people did too but, I also had to sit down with myself at a specific time and just be like, “Yo, wake up. Stop being fake.” ‘
Rhea – who is one of the biggest stars in WWE today as the alongside Damian Priest, Finn Balor, Dominik Mysterio and JD McDonagh – had to have a change in the way she looked at herself as a wrestler.
‘I hate fake people and I was one and I was like, just don’t care what anyone thinks about you. If they don’t like you, they don’t deserve to be in your life,’ she explained.
‘So I just kind of decided to be myself. I cut my hair short. At the time, we had to get tattoos approved (she laughed). I mean, we still sort of do. I just get away with it… so I wore pants as a way to get leg sleeves. That was my little loophole.’
Rhea – whoseat Elimination Chamber last month – is marching into WrestleMania 40 as champion one year after winning the gold.
Still not yet in her 30s, she has the wrestling world at her feet andgetting reactions from the crowd each and every time she steps through the curtain.
‘I relish in it, I really do. I enjoy every second – especially knowing how worked up everyone’s gonna be about it,’ she told Metro.co.uk. ‘That just drives me to being more of a menace in a way! [laughs] But yeah, I love what I do, I am enjoying it!’
WWE WrestleMania comes from Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on April 6 and 7. Tune in via the WWE Network.
