Rhea Ripley has been absent from the wrestling spotlight since relinquishing the WWE Women’s World Championship.
But she has still been around.
During a recent Gabby AF appearance, women’s wrestling star Serena Deeb confirmed Ripley was backstage at the recent AEW Double Or Nothing 2024 pay-per-view.
Deeb confirmed the news while talking about the WWE NXT/TNA crossover appearances and working alongside Ripley at the WWE Performance Center in the past.
Featured below is an excerpt.
“Anything is possible. It’s a cool place for the business to be at because for so long, it wasn’t like that, and it was very rigid, the very rigid lines of, ‘No, you can’t cross that,’ and now the lines are blurred. You mentioned Jordynne [Grace], I thought her match at that NXT pay-per-view was really good. I really respect her. She’s honestly somebody, yeah, I would love to get in there with Jordynne at some point. But I would say definitely number one is Rhea Ripley. When we were at the Performance Center together, we just had a really cool bond. I felt really close with her. I think of all the coaches, myself and Scotty 2 Hotty, we were kind of her people. I always had her back, I always tried to pep her up and encourage her. I know, and I’m not saying, ‘Oh, I knew,’ but I knew. I was like, this girl’s a star. Once she gets that right thing, forget about it, she’s gonna rise so fast, which she has. I actually saw her at Double or Nothing. I saw her, I couldn’t believe it when I saw her. I was completely shocked. We embraced each other, I gave her the biggest hug, and we seriously did not let go for like ten minutes. We were just standing there with our arms around each other. I cried multiple times. I told her, ‘I’m so proud of you, I knew it. You’ve persevered through so much.’ I love watching her. I think she’s the biggest star in women’s wrestling. I think her in-ring work is incredible, on top of all her character work. She’s number one. I told her that. In my personal opinion, she’s just operating at a level that, there’s a lot of great women, but she’s up here in my opinion. When I saw her, I was like, ‘I want to wrestle you so bad.’ I think for both of us, it’s a dream match, for sure.”
Check out the complete interview at Spotify.com. H/T to Fightful.com for transcribing the above quotes.
