"I would have been fired"- Rhea Ripley on what saved her WWE job
Rhea Ripley believes she would have been fired if she had kept her long hair.
Ripley has firmly established herself as a popular act on WWE's main roster. She currently holds the Women's Tag Team titles with Nikki A.S.H on WWE RAW.
Longtime fans of Ripley are aware that she used to sport long hair, back in the day. Ripley underwent a dramatic transformation in 2018 and cut a significant portion of her hair.
A Rhea Ripley fan account recently posted an old picture of the WWE Superstar on Instagram, in which she can be seen rocking long hair. The caption to the post asked what would have happened if Rhea hadn't cut her hair. Ripley noticed the post and chimed in on the same with an interesting comment.
Ripley believes she wouldn't have lasted this far in WWE if she had kept her long hair. Check out the post in question and the screengrab of Rhea's response:
Rhea Ripley received a massive push after cutting her hair
In the following clip, fans can see Rhea Ripley in her old avatar. The clip is from early 2018 and features a determined Rhea working out at the WWE Performance Center.
Ripley cut off her hair later in the year. It should be noted that she didn't trim all of her hair in one go. In the clip embedded below, she can be seen competing in the finals of the NXT UK Women's Championship Tournament. Rhea had cut off some of her hair by this point but hadn't fully trimmed it yet.
She later began sporting a new look with significantly shorter hair. The look matched the persona of "The Nightmare" to a T. She went on to defeat Shayna Baszler for the NXT Women's title in 2019. She competed in an NXT Women's title match against Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania 36 and lost the belt when all was said and done.
Ripley defeated Asuka for the RAW Women's title earlier this year, at WrestleMania 37. She is currently doing well as an upper mid-card act on RAW and one-half of the Tag Team Champions. It's safe to assume, though, that it's only a matter of time before Ripley gets back in the RAW Women's title picture.