People were trying to direct McMahon to present Ripley as a babyface.
Four years have passed since Rhea Ripley joined WWE's main roster. She looked back on that time during her appearance on Insight with Chris Van Vliet.
She shared her thoughts that former WWE CEO Vince McMahon did not know what to do with her when she was called-up. Ripley said McMahon saw her as a heel while others were trying to get him to present her as a babyface.
“And then as soon as I came to the main roster, it was in COVID so Vince (McMahon) 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 her.’ 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 (Mysterio), I could actually blossom a little bit into something different -- instead of being the hard-ass all the time, I was Mami."
Several weeks after officially joining the main roster, Ripley went on to WrestleMania 37 to defeat Asuka to become Raw Women's Champion.
If the quote in this article is used, please credit Insight with Chris Van Vliet with an H/T to Fightful for the transcription.
