Nowadays, kayfabe doesn't hold the same importance in the wrestling business it once did. Social media has offered greater insight into the real lives of the personalities we see on RAW, SmackDown, and AEW Dynamite each week, and that can complicate things.
In WWE, for example, Rhea Ripley and Dominik Mysterio are meant to be a couple. However, a quick look online reveals that the latter recently got married, while the Women's World Champion is in a relationship with AEW star Buddy Matthews.
In a recent interview with Logan Paul, Ripley opened up about having a partner who works for a different company and the fact that they're at very different points in their respective pro wrestling careers.
"[Buddy] is happy for me and he also knows how far I can go in this company and how far his limitations are as well. For him, he's been in WWE, he's been wrestling for maybe over 15 years, and he knows that when he was in WWE, he hit a peak there," Ripley explained. "Then over in AEW, he's doing well and it's slowly growing."
"The House of Black is slowly growing and getting more steam, but he also knows that at the end of the day, the platform that I'm on, this might make a lot of people mad, but it's obviously higher."
"I feel like he doesn't get threatened by that and he says he doesn't either, so I'll take his word. I trust him, I believe him," Ripley continued, referring to the success she's found as a main event-level talent. "He's very comfortable in what he's doing and who I am. He also loves to help me along the way and help me grow, which is what a relationship should be. If I'm winning, he's winning."
Ripley and Matthews met in WWE, though the latter was released in 2021 before signing with AEW the following year. Last August, they got engaged.
Elsewhere in the interview, The Eradicator also addressed her dynamic with Mysterio as his "Mami." While she chose her words carefully in a bid to protect some level of kayfabe, she praised Matthews for not having an issue with her and Dom's unique relationship on WWE programming.
"Oh yeah, not many people could be in a relationship through that," Ripley admitted. "Yeah, if the roles were reversed, I don’t think I could either. Yeah, I know. [Laughs] I get jealous really bad." As you can see in the video below, she added that her fiancé is very "chill" when it comes to her back and forth with Dirty Dom and that there's absolutely no tension away from the ring regarding their on-screen romance.
Hear more from Ripley in the X posts below.