Rhea Ripley clarifies her comments.
In an interview with Chris Van Vliet, Rhea Ripley was asked about feeling pressure.
Ripley replied by saying, "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."
Though Ripley never mentioned Triple H, fans on social media blamed Triple H's booking, namely for not having her active in the ring.
Ripley clarified by stating, "He’s 100% not to blame. The stupid bully mentality of some people on social media is the blame. Them and the ones that think they can do our jobs better than us, even though they have no experience in this profession or experience in real life."
He’s 100% not to blame. The stupid bully mentality of some people on social media is the blame. Them and the ones that think they can do our jobs better than us, even though they have no experience in this profession or experience in real life.
— RheaRipley_WWE (@RheaRipley_WWE) June 26, 2025
Ripley is set to compete against Raquel Rodriguez at WWE Night of Champions.
