"She can just keep going and going" - Rhea Ripley recalls physical ordeal to be the "fittest" before facing 37-year-old megastar
WWE SmackDown Women's Champion Rhea Ripley recently spoke about her WrestleMania match with Charlotte Flair.
Flair was the Champion walking into The Show of Shows, and Ripley chose to challenge her after winning the Royal Rumble. The two stars met at WrestleMania 39 in a rematch of their battle from three years ago. Both women left it all in the ring, but in the end, Rhea finally grabbed the win after hitting an Avalanche Riptide.
This week on Mark Andrews' My Love Letter to Wrestling podcast, Ripley mentioned that she was nervous before her WrestleMania matchup. She recalled working as the mouthpiece for The Judgment Day and not wrestling very often.
"I mean, I was excited, but I was very nervous. Just the fact being that I hadn't really had many reps in the ring doing actual matches like full-blown long matches for a while. I was out injured then I came back and I'd been doing the Judgment Day stuff. They kept me out of it to keep me more just sort of a special sort of thing."
The Nightmare also explained that Charlotte was an amazing athlete and she had to be at her physical best to keep up with The Queen.
"But going into Mania I was like, 'Damn, it's against Charlotte.' I know how it is to wrestle against Charlotte. She is just a superb athlete, she's so good at everything. She can just keep going and going. Being in the ring with her that many times, they were like the fittest times that I had ever been. It was the fittest Rhea Ripley that you could've seen." [From 9:20 to 10:13]
Rhea Ripley finally defeats Charlotte to become the NEW SmackDown Women’s Champion.
Absolutely tremendous match, credit where credit is due.
And Rhea’s ‘redemption story’ is finally complete.
#WrestleMania https://t.co/UksxafXHjZ
Rhea Ripley is undefeated for over a year
Ever since joining The Judgment Day, Rhea Ripley has evolved into a force of nature. The Eradicator has been at her dominant best for so long that she hasn't lost on WWE TV in 367 days.
Rhea's last defeat came at the hands of Liv Morgan on the May 29, 2022 edition of RAW. Since then, Mami has managed to rake up an 11-0 win streak in televised singles matches.
RHEA WINS BY LESS THAN A MINUTE!!! #WWENOC #RheaRipley #ANDSTILL https://t.co/8PvKMIvu0U
With her dominant win over Natalya at Night of Champions, Rhea sent out a message to the entire Women's division that she was not going to relinquish the title easily.
Who do you think can bring down Rhea Ripley? Let us know in the comments section below.
If you use the quotes from this article, please credit My Love Letter to Wrestling podcast and add a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcript.