Rhea Ripley is opening up about how she has changed up her performance due to the lack of an audience, and how she feels about having her fellow Superstars act as audience members now.
Rhea Ripley was supposed to wrestle Charlotte Flair in front of tens of thousands of people at WrestleMania 36 In a packed Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. Instead, due to COVID-19, she wrestled Charlotte Flair in front of an empty Performance Center in Orlando, Florida.
Speaking with Mirror in the UK, Ripley discussed what she needed to change in her game to adapt to the no-audience scenario and how relieved she is to have an audience back in some form now that Superstars and WWE Performance Center recruits are acting as audience members in a crowd.
“I think just vocalizing things. I've always been vocal in my matches, and I've always made a lot of noises, a lot of random noises,” Ripley admits. “It's really awkward with no people in there, so I'm glad the NXT peeps are in the crowd now, because it's very awkward, very quiet and so I felt like I needed to be louder. Sometimes that came across a little bit weird to people, but I'm just trying to make it as entertaining as I can.”
Rhea Ripley will be front-and-center in front of an audience of her peers once again on Sunday, June 7. Ripley will challenge for the NXT Championship she lost to Charlotte Flair in a Triple Threat match along with Io Shirai at NXT TakeOver: In Your House.
