Rhea Ripley Was “On The Chopping Block A Couple Times” In WWE

In an appearance on Mark Andrews' My Love Letter To Wrestling podcast, WWE star Rhea Ripley talked about her change in appearance between the first two Mae Young Classics, which she participated in.

Ripley opened up about the tough year she had in between the tournaments, and how it ultimately motivated her to change up her mentality and, by extension, her appearance.

"A lot of things, really," Ripley said. "It was sort of the whole year between the Mae Young Classic one and two. I went through a lot, like mentally behind the scenes. I was having troubles at home, I was having troubles at work. I hated myself, just like, very mentally weak at that point of time.

"Like I just didn't think I was good enough. I was constantly being told I wasn't good enough and I had to do something to improve it. I was on the chopping block a couple of times and I nearly got booted, you know what I mean?

"I just had a lot going on and I was very down, and I sort of, I want to say, at that sixth month period, I was just like 'you know what? Snuff this. I don't care what anybody thinks about me. Like, all they're going to do is judge me anyway and I can't listen to everyone because everyone's advice is like, clashing with other people's advice.'

"I just had to sort of change my mental game completely. I started going to a gym like I signed up to an actual gym, which is the first gym I've ever signed up to. I was terrified. I don't like being around people so I was absolutely terrified."

Since then Rhea Ripley has had a very eventful WWE career, including winning the WWE RAW Women's Championship at WrestleMania 37 shortly after being called up to the main roster. When asked why she got pushed so quickly upon getting called up, Ripley admitted she wasn't sure the exact reason.

"I don't really know, to be completely honest," Ripley said. "I don't know if it's because I look so different. Like it's hard to put my finger on it. I mean, I know I can say over and over again I work hard and like, that's been seen but of course, everyone works hard. So I don't really know what it was specifically.

"If anything, I would narrow it down to the crowd and their reactions because the crowd, I was doing so many shows, like I was going to the UK, I was doing the coconut loops here. So the crowd knew who I was, they knew that I was always there and always on the shows and interacting with them, and they got behind me.

"And they sort of understood me better than work did in a way because I wasn't supposed to have that rise. I was supposed to go out and have that match with Shayna, the first one, you know, where I come out and I do the promo and it leads to the match. I was supposed to go into that match and lose. I was supposed to get choked out. But when I went out for the promo, just the start of my song, it was one of the loudest crowd reactions that I have ever heard and I guess that the people in Gorilla heard too.

"Because legit, I finished the promo and it was the time we'd pre-record. So like we'd do four weeks of tapings in one day. So I did the promo, then I'd have to run and go get changed into my wrestling gear to wrestle that night and they sort of, they came in and they were like, 'yeah, we've got to change everything because Rhea's too over'."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit My Love Letter To Wrestling and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription