Rhea Ripley was only 20 when she first signed with WWE. A competitor in the Mae Young Classic, she looked very different then; for starters, she had blonde hair, no tattoos, and fit the expected archetype of a female WWE Superstar.
Talking to Paste, WWE Hall of Famer and NXT Senior Vice President of Talent Development Shawn Michaels said, "Everyone has seen those pictures of her and thought, 'Oh, she’s a cute young lady.' The accent obviously won you over from the beginning."
Ripley, however, wasn't happy and found herself even less pleased with her booking. Defeated for NXT Women's Champion by Nikki Cross at NXT TakeOver: War Games, Ripley went on to lose 16 of her next 20 matches.
"I literally broke down," Ripley says of that time in her career. "I was at my lowest and I wanted to quit. I wanted to give it all up, and I was like, 'No, you have to continue for all the people that actually did believe in you. You have to prove the doubters wrong.'"
After putting some thought into her career, Ripley changed her look and embraced her true self. "I said, 'This is me now.' And they were like, 'Okay, we’ll see if it works.' Luckily, I went out there and I was so much more confident. The second Mae Young Classic, I was me. I didn’t care. I just wanted to go out there and do what I loved. I wanted to brutalize and entertain, and that’s where Rhea Ripley grew into."
Michaels acknowledged that by saying, "As you watch her progression, it’s crazy that this young, wholesome Australian lady turned into this very cool, very rugged, ostentatious superstar. When that happens, you think she might lose a lot of that endearing quality that she had when she looked differently."
"But, because Rhea in real life is that person, that unbelievably sensitive young lady, you could see very early that she was going to be special." A successful run in NXT UK followed, and Ripley eventually arrived on the main roster,r where she wasted no time in putting herself on the map.
Heading into this weekend's WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas, Ripley will challenge for the Women's World Championship in a Triple Threat match also featuring Iyo Sky and Bianca Belair.
"I’m going to have to go in there with the mentality that I had within the Judgement Day," she teases. "I’m going to have to be the Eradicator, just brutalizing people. I’m going to have to unlock that and then, possibly, I may be able to pin Iyo or Bianca."
Do you think Riple will walk out of Sin City with the title?