Rhea Ripley discussed the evolution of her character in WWE over the years during an interview with The West Sport to promote the 2024 WWE Elimination Chamber PLE.
She said, “I think it’s all about being yourself. For me, when I first came in for the first May Young Classic, I had the long blonde hair. I smiled way too much. Way too bubbly. It wasn’t me. The person that you see today is the person that I was back then. But I was trying so hard to be someone else because of obviously the people that I watched growing up. I thought that’s what they wanted. So that’s what I gave them. I didn’t feel comfortable and after a while, I wasn’t getting put on shows. I wasn’t getting opportunities, I was getting beat down and picked on. They didn’t think I worked hard enough. But I was just trying to give them what I thought they wanted, but at the end of the day, the best thing you could do is just be confident with the person that you are. So once I decided not to care what people thought about me. I was like, ‘I’m going to be myself.’”
“Cut my hair short… And once I did that and started wearing the long pants with the chains and the studs… Changed my persona, came out and I was just mean mugging everyone, beating everyone up. ‘This is my brutality,’ it’s not even a joke. It’s what I did. That’s when my career really started rocking and rolling. And the Rhea Ripley evolution that you have seen into the Rhea Ripley that you see today is just me growing as a person outside of the WWE and I’m just letting it shine through within the WWE sort of thing. So, it’s me. And I think that’s what the fans see and that’s what gravitates them towards Rhea Ripley.”
You can check out the complete interview below:
