With Bayley and IYO SKY officially paired off for a match against each other at WrestleMania 40 in the most prominent battle of the Damage CTRL Civil War, Rhea Ripley finds herself the lone main roster women's champion without a challenger for WrestleMania 40, which isn't an ideal spot to be, even for a performer as dominant as the “Eradicator.”
Suddenly, the biggest game left on the proverbial hunting grounds, Ripley, is fielding would-be challengers from all angles, with Becky Lynch, Liv Morgan, and Nia Jax alone having already shot their shot at the Judgment Day member ahead of the Elimination Chamber in her home country of Australia, with more would-be foes set to come over the next few weeks.
On paper, you'd think Ripley would be as braggadocious as ever, attempting to put herself over and scare off the field, but, in a rare subversion of expectations, she actually did the opposite in an interview with Sportskeeda, putting over potential WrestleMania opponent Bianca Belair and her new Hulu show Love & WWE.
“It's amazing. It brings eyes to what we do, and it brings eyes to two amazing people at the same time. Like, I'm so extremely happy for Bianca and Tez because I've seen how hard they work. They went nonstop for like a year and a half or two years. Bianca barely had any days off,” Rhea Ripley told Sportskeeda via Fightful. “Like, I'm not even joking. She maybe had five in the whole year. So I'm very excited for them, and I'm excited to watch it. But I think it also just helps WWE as a whole as well because so many people got brought to WWE through Total Divas. Now we have this as well. So this is going to be another platform. for not only WWE to get bigger, but for Bianca and Tez to get bigger too and I'm excited to see their fame just like skyrocket.”
Delving into the meat and potatoes of the show, Ripley revealed what fans should look forward to the most when they tune into the show, namely the boundless energy of another former Elimination Chamber standout, Montez Ford.
“Just how crazy Tez is in real life and how it is not just old play for the camera. That's just how he is,” Ripley explained. “Yeah, he's a crazy man. Bianca, she's very patient. I love it. I love him too. But yeah, just seeing how much effort goes into everything that they do, especially Bianca with her making her gear. She's still making that day of the show. Right before she goes out to wrestle, she's making her gear. So just seeing those little behind-the-scenes things, I think it's going to be very eye-opening for a lot of people.”
Alright, from a traditional Kayfabe standpoint, is it a good idea for a heel champion like Ripley to put over a potential challenger ahead of the Elimination Chamber? No, normally, that would be the last thing a heel would do, as Roman Reigns proved on SmackDown when he shot on Seth Rollins to a pretty incredible degree. Still, this is 2024, and as much as WWE wants to make Ripley look like a dominant baddie, they also want to get people to watch Love & WWE, making for an interesting middle ground for the “Mami” to fill.
Rhea Ripley explains how her Mami moniker came about.
Speaking of the “Mami” the moniker, Rhea Ripley explained how the nickname came together in an appearance on NotSamWrestling, noting that, while she initially enjoyed taking a page from Eddie Guerrero's playbook, Damien Priest actually helped her to settle into a gimmick all her own.
“[Mami] was a Priest thing. I went out there, came back after kneeing myself in the face and busting my front two teeth, I had braces for a week, it was great,”Rhea Ripley explained via Fightful. “I came back from that, and we came back on Rey's anniversary. That's where I decided to be a little menace, be myself, and I ordered an Eddie Guerrero shirt, and I came out with an ‘I'm Your Papi' shirt, just to see what the h*ll was going to happen from that. That was a me call and just me doing something that I thought was right and I wanted to stir the pot a little bit. I started the whole Papi thing, I got told I couldn't be Papi, so Priest was like, ‘Well, you're Mami.' I was like, ‘D**n straight, I'm Mami. We're going to roll with that.' The Mami thing makes me feel comfortable. I just got out there, and I'm a child version of myself. I go out there, have fun, do little menace things, make fun of people. Just going out there and having fun.”
Alright, to be fair, in 2022, no one should have had an issue with Ripley calling herself “Papi,” as not only was it a reference to the Mysterio Family's past, but she was also being booked in a Chyna-esque role that saw her routinely slamming the likes of Luke Gallows and attacking Dominik Mysterio on the reg. Still, if she had to change it, “Mami” is a solid Plan B, as she can own the gimmick all her own and play into her very unusual relationship with “Dirty” Dom. All in all, it's safe to say this one worked out for all parties involved.
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