When Rhea Ripley won the 2023 Woman's Royal Rumble, it marked a major moment in her WWE career.
Sure, Ripley has won titles in the past, both on the main roster and in NXT, but this mattered maybe more than any other because it allowed her to quite literally shoot her shot at whomever she wanted, making sure that when WrestleMania 39 rolled around, she'd have as good a chance as anyone to leave SoFi with a title around her waist.
Ultimately, Ripley chose Charlotte Flair, and while the build-up to the match wasn't ideal – and they weren't afforded a main event spot versus Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens versus The Usos – the “Eradicator” is still incredibly proud of her efforts in the match, as she believes “The Queen” helped her steal the show.
“Yeah. I think, especially because the build-up to WrestleMania wasn't exactly how I imagined it. The mentality that I had, and I think Charlotte had because I felt it out there, we wanted to go into that match and leave everything we had in that ring,” Rhea Ripley told Sam Roberts via Fightful. “We didn't want to leave with any energy, anything feeling half decent. We just wanted to go out there and steal the show. Normally, when you win the Rumble, you get the main event spot. Build wasn't there, other one was, completely understand it. I think the boys really deserved that main event spot. We wanted to go out there and prove that, with a proper build, we could have had that spot, and we could have stolen the whole entire show and knocked it off with such a perfect match. That's what we did. We went out there and absolutely destroyed each other.”
Should Flair and Ripley have main evented WrestleMania 39? Frankly, that depends on your opinion; while there are strong cases for both matches, it's not like there was an “obvious” choice one way or the other. Still, it's a lot easier to argue Ripley's second point, as she really did steal the show with Flair, turning in what truly has been considered one of the top matches on the show.
Indi Hartwell believes Rhea Ripley is an inspiration.
With the Elimination Chamber rapidly approaching in Perth, Australia, WWE has been putting its Aussie Superstars to work in the pursuit of getting the most eyes on their product as possible, including Indi Hartwell, the former NXT Champion who calls Melbourne, Victoria, Australia home.
Stopping by The West Sport to talk all things WWE, Hartwell was asked about the most prominent Australian performer in the promotion right now, Rhea Ripley, whom she has some experience with from their time working together in NXT. Though they run in different circles now, Ripley remains a performer Hartwell follows regularly, as they came up together and remain connected as a result.
“Yeah, it seems that I’m always a few steps behind her, she’s always champion when I’m trying to become champion, but having Rhea — even though she’s two months younger than me — she’s definitely someone I look up to. I think she’s someone that a lot of men and women can look up to, especially Australians, to have like a figure like her in WWE. She’s one of the top Superstars there, and I use her as inspiration. I love to see her journey and hopefully one day win the title off her,” Indi Hartwell explained via Fightful.
“Rhea and I actually met each other before we both started wrestling. We met each other as fans, like meeting the WWE Superstars at the airport when they came to Australia. So we met when we were like 15 or 16, and I don’t think she had started wrestling then. I certainly hadn’t started wrestling yet. But I went to Adelaide to wrestle, and we knew each other, but she’s always been a few steps ahead of me. So when I was really breaking into wrestling in Australia, that’s when she was off to WWE so it’s not really until now that we’ve really been in the same place for a while.”
Though they spent almost two years together in the WWE developmental system from 2019-21, Hartwell and Ripley have only wrestled three matches together as members of any of the promotion's three brands, appearing together in the NXT Women's Title #1 Contendership Battle Royale in 2020, the Royal Rumble match in 2023, and a singles match on RAW a few weeks later. Still, assuming Ripley remains the WWE Women's World Champion and Hartwell remains on RAW, who knows, maybe fans will get a longer look at their in-ring efforts at some point down the line?
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