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RHEA RIPLEY DISCUSSES HER WWE NXT WOMEN'S CHAMPIONSHIP WIN, THE CRAZINESS AFTER THE WIN, WHY THE TEGAN NOX INJURY BECAME A MILESTONE MOMENT IN HER CAREER, THE ROYAL RUMBLE, FUTURE CHALLENGES, HEADLINING THE FINAL NXT EPISODE OF THE YEAR AND MUCH MORE: COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT

The following interview was conducted on Thursday December 19th.

Mike Johnson: The new Star Wars movie comes out today, but if you're an NXT fan, you're enjoying the moment as last night's episode of NXT ended with Rhea Ripley defeating Shayna Baszler for the NXT Women's Championship in a crazy, chaotic mosh pit of a celebration closing the show. We're on the line with the new NXT Women's Champion, Rhea Ripley. So hi, a bit of a crazy 24 hours for you. Have you wrapped your head around this yet? Are you feeling good? Have you been able to take it in and take a deep breath?

Rhea Ripley: [Laughs] Hey mate, I'm doing great. Yeah, I'm just doing great. How are you doing?

Mike Johnson: I'm good. So obviously, this all started back in August when you showed up and you confronted Shayna and it all built to this moment last night. Obviously, there's a lot of mental and emotional and physical prepping that goes into a big match. Let's talk about the aftermath of it. Emotionally, mentally, what is something like that... What's that ride for you coming out of it knowing that you've had this momentous moment that really kind of ties the bow on NXT's 2019?

Rhea Ripley: Oh man, I don't even know how to put it into words how I was feeling. I had every single emotion that you could think of. To be in that ring after the, "one, two, three," and have everyone from the crowd come in there and join me and have people from the back come out and join me and yeah, they turned it into a mosh pit, which is absolutely amazing. Being a little girl and being in a mosh pit, watching the people perform up on the stage, I always wanted to be in their shoes, and I'm not musically gifted like they are. So to be able to complete that feeling with wrestling as well is just absolutely amazing. It felt like a mosh pit. It's felt exactly like the mosh pit, it felt like I was crowd surfing and that's always a special feeling to me.  But yeah, I was just excited and I was tired, I was sore. I was every single feeling that you could think of, that pretty much sums up how I was feeling. It's hard to describe, but man, I came home afterwards and I was just like...I was knackered. I was absolutely knackered, but I had so much adrenaline I couldn't sleep. So I ended up getting a pizza and just sitting back and reflecting and just thinking how amazing that night was because it was an amazing night and it was career-making and yeah, there's just so many feelings that go into it and come out of it. You know?

Mike Johnson: Here was NXT's last big live episode of the year, they built up these two matches and then you and Shayna get the chance to headline on the same broadcast that features Adam Cole against Finn Bálor . That's a match that could headline an NXT Takeover event, anytime there's a takeover event, but the company had the faith in you and Shayna to headline and close out NXT's live event and live television shows for the year. There's all that talk about women in sports and the women's evolution, as WWE talks about so often, but what does it mean to you as someone who grew up idolizing and loving the The Miz and getting into pro wrestling and Riot City Wrestling in Australia, making your way here and the whole trials and tribulations of that journey with the Mae Young Classic, NXT UK and now this? What does it mean to you to see the company putting that faith in you and Shayna and in the match - and to have that moment for yourself?

Rhea Ripley: Man, I was honored. I was so excited and so pumped because like you said, I don't call the Finn Bálor for the NXT Championship. That could main event a takeover and to have them go out first to open the show and then Shayna and I closing it, that's just such a big thing. You don't really see many women main eventing things, which is sad because we've come such a long way and we are true performers and we worked hard for this and to be able to go out there in the main event spots for the NXT Women's Championship. It's just absolutely incredible. It's just, to see how far I've come from being at Riot City Wrestling in Adelaide, South Australia where wrestling isn't really that big. It's slowly getting bigger now, but it wasn't very big when I was there. To see me come from that to then go to Japan to then come to here at NXT, compete in the first and the Mae Young Classic as someone that I don't even remember.  I don't remember that person cause that wasn't me. That was me trying to be someone that I wasn't, cause then going into the Mae Young Classic to being a person who I knew I was, sticking true to who I knew I was and just doing whatever I wanted to then going to the UK, becoming the first ever NXT UK Women's Champion, then come on back over here, challenging Shayna, competing in the first ever Women's WarGames. Winning that to then going to the Survivor Series and winning to Team NXT to then going to Shayna in the main events of the last ever of the year and its Team USA show is just, it's absolutely incredible and I can't believe that they, well, I do actually believe that they trusted us with that slot and I'm glad that Shayna and I could pull off that sort of match for them and make them all proud and make them all understand that we had to fight for our spot and we deserve to be in that main event spot.

Mike Johnson: You mentioned the second Mae Young Classic tournament and how different you were from the first. There was that moment where Tegan Nox got injured and you never lost any sight of who you were on-camera, like Rhea Ripley never showed concern for her. She kind of sneered down at the fact that [Nox] was hurt. I was so impressed by that moment because you've seen even veterans who kind of lose themselves when something goes awry. What was going through your mind in all that, obviously there's concern, but what was going through your mind in that moment? To me, while I feel like as terrible of a set of circumstances that ended up becoming one of the defining moments of Rhea Ripley: the personality.

Rhea Ripley: Yeah, definitely. That was one of the most defining moments of my whole career. That pretty much made my career into what it was, and I hate saying that because he did get very injured in that match, and it was very hard to keep a straight face and stay in the character that I was, because I like Tegan. I don't want to see her get hurt and she just came back from knee surgery, so she missed out on the first ever Mae Young Classic cause she tore her ACL and then to be competing in the second one and have her knee pretty much explode and it was her good one. So as soon as she did that dive, she started saying things and screaming and I was like, okay, that's not right. She, I think she just really hurt herself, and then she took forever to get in the ring and I knew something was up but she wanted to keep going.   So I was like, all right, we'll keep going. So I just stayed in my mood and I just kept going and then I hit her with a drop kick and she threw up the ex and like my heart actually sunk. It was a feeling that I just, I don't want to ever feel again. And the screams that she was screaming, every time I see her cell now in a match, I swear to God, I have like PTSD. It freaks me out. I can't watch it because the screams that she let out, they freaked me out so much, but at the same time, I was trying to stay straight-faced and just not care. But deep down inside, I was so upset for her and I was so scared of what happened, cause obviously we didn't know what was going on. We just knew that she was in a lot of pain. So to see her go down and not be able to go to the next round was very, very heartbreaking. You know?

Mike Johnson: Absolutely, it was, but the irony of it is, is that this legitimately serious situation helped accentuate the personality that you were creating for yourself on camera. So it's one of those weird things that really only happens in the world of professional wrestling.  Obviously, as the new Champion, Shayna Baszler is going to be set for rematches.   However, there's a number of other great talents, including Tegan and Dakota Kai and Io Shirai and Candice LeRae who are out there. As the Champion, who are some of the talents that you're looking forward wrestling coming into 2020?

Rhea Ripley: Man, I'm seriously looking forward to wrestling whoever comes my way. The one person that I definitely do want to get my hands on is Dakota Kai there, because I had my one on one match against her, but I ended up scheming a little plan so Mia [Yim] could get her revenge. So Mia came out and she got revenge on Dakota, but I still haven't got my revenge on Dakota. So I wouldn't mind actually facing her and conflicting a little bit of pain, you know?

Mike Johnson:  I know we're running out of time, but next month is the Royal Rumble in Houston, and you obviously competed last year. Are you looking to repeat the feat?

Rhea Ripley: Man, I would love to. We'll see if I get a call, but I would definitely love to be in the Royal Rumble again and hopefully, I do better this year if I'm in it or next year if I'm in it, so we'll see what happens. But I'm definitely looking forward to it and I'm going to put my name forward if they're looking for people. So we'll see what happens.

Mike Johnson:  I want to thank you for sitting down and talking to us. I know you've got to run and do a couple of other interviews. We appreciate the time and we wish you happy holidays and if you've got any words for anybody, as everybody that's listening, as we get out of here, I'd like to give you the forum.

Rhea Ripley: All I got to say is pretty much do whatever you want. Do you. If you dream of something, you can accomplish it, if you just put your heart to it. Look at me. Little girl from Adelaide, South Australia. I wanted to be a professional wrestler and now I work for NXT and I'm the NXT Women's Champion. So you can pretty much do whatever you want. Don't care what people say, just do it. If you want to do it, you do it. That's pretty much all I got.

Mike Johnson: Truer words perhaps never said on this website.   Rhea, we wish you nothing but the best personally and professionally. Enjoy the title win and enjoy the title reign.

Rhea Ripley: Thank you, man. Enjoy your holidays.

 

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